The righteous are spared, the idolaters are condemned

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 13

Isaiah 57:1-13

The righteous man perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away while no one understands, for the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute. Whom do you mock? Against whom do you open wide your mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering; you have offered a grain offering. Should I relent concerning these things? On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your memorial; far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their nakedness. You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and made them go down to hell. You were wearied by the length of your road; yet you did not say, “There is no hope.” You have found renewed strength; therefore, you did not faint. Of whom were you afraid or fearful when you lied and you did not remember Me, nor give Me a thought? Have I not held My peace for a long time so that you do not fear Me? I will declare your righteousness, and your works, yet they shall not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind shall carry them all away, a breath shall take them away. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain.

Isaiah 57. In this final chapter of the middle section of Isaiah’s prophecy that has dealt especially with the Messiah’s coming to suffer for sin, the Lord returns to the main reason why the people of Israel had to go into captivity in Babylon, and why the Messiah had to come: Because Israel had turned away from worshiping the Lord to serving false gods. Over and over again Isaiah returns to this pattern. He (1) exposes Israel’s idolatry, (2) announces their punishment for it, (3) calls them to repentance, (4) announces comfort and peace for the penitent, and, finally, (5) repeats the condemnation that awaits the impenitent.

The chapter begins with a little bit of that comfort and peace for the penitent. The righteous man perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away while no one understands, for the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. These are some precious verses in the Bible. It’s not uncommon for tragedy to strike a good person. Sometimes “the good die young.” Sometimes the righteous man perishes before he reaches old age and merciful men are taken away in the prime of their life. How does that fit with the promise attached to the 4^th Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, that it may go well with you, and that you may enjoy a long life in the land the Lord is giving you”? Here God spells it out for us. Sometimes the righteous man, the merciful man, the good man or woman, the faithful Israelite in the Old Testament or the faithful Christian in the New, dies and doesn’t enjoy a long life in the land. But it’s literally for their own good.

Now, if you don’t believe in the life after this life, then that’s an absurd claim. But if you do, then understand that God wanted to spare that person from the evil that was coming. Sometimes believers are forced to live through dark times here on earth. But sometimes God, in His mercy, takes some of His people out of this life to spare them from those dark times. Sometimes He says to the Christian, “Come home! Come home now. I have to send some severe punishment against the people where you live. Dark times are coming, and I don’t want you to suffer it with everyone else. You have served Me faithfully. Come into your Father’s kingdom!”

It’s just the opposite, though, for the unrighteous, for the impenitent. But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute. Now the Lord is about to lay into the idolaters in Israel. He calls them “sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute,” which may be literally true, in some cases, since sorcery and adultery literally go hand in hand. But throughout this chapter God is mainly exposing the spiritual sorcery and adultery that Israel had been committing. How? By turning away from the forms of worship that God had instituted, by turning away from the “marriage vows” they had made with God and by turning instead to false gods.

Whom do you mock? Against whom do you open wide your mouth and stick out your tongue? It seems that some of the people were so brazen as to make fun of the God of Israel. God would speak to them through their prophets and they would stick out their tongues like little children. It’s exactly how our own culture now behaves toward the God who revealed Himself in the Bible. They poke fun at Him and at anyone who dares to uphold His Word as true, at anyone who dares to confess the Lord Christ as He truly is. But God exposes them for what they are.

Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering; you have offered a grain offering. Should I relent concerning these things?

Many of the Israelites were literally going out to the trees of the forest, or to the lone tree in a desert region, setting up their idols and their altars there. They would offer sacrifices. They would perform pagan rituals. Apparently they even practiced child sacrifice. In today’s world, there are still some who participate in cultic rituals. But much more common is for people to sacrifice their children through abortion as they worship their careers, and their pleasures, and their freedom from God and from religion. Much more common is for people to worship at the altar of “science,” or of popularity, or of politics. It’s all idolatry when people devote their lives to these things instead of to the God who has revealed Himself to us in Christ.

On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your memorial; far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their nakedness. You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and made them go down to hell.

Another description of idolatry, here compared to fornication or adultery and lewd practices. The daughter of Zion had made herself a prostitute by worshiping other gods. Again, this is what our culture has done, prostituting itself to every degenerate practice and belief. Listen and see if St. Paul’s words about the Gentiles of his day apply to the world we live in: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

You were wearied by the length of your road. Serving idols and worshiping demons is a “long and tiring road” that leads to nowhere. The false gods can’t actually improve your life. Yet you did not say, “There is no hope.” You have found renewed strength; therefore, you did not faint. Even though the false gods weren’t getting them anywhere, they kept serving them anyway, just as our culture does. Our society continues to get worse and worse, and yet they keep pursuing the policies of failure, out of reverence for their false gods.

Of whom were you afraid or fearful when you lied and you did not remember Me, nor give Me a thought? Have I not held My peace for a long time so that you do not fear Me? I will declare your righteousness, and your works, yet they shall not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind shall carry them all away, a breath shall take them away. In other words, when God held His peace, when God didn’t immediately punish them for their wickedness, they stopped fearing that He would ever punish them. But that’s foolish. God does sometimes postpone punishment for the wicked, not because He’s oblivious, not because He’s doesn’t care, but because He’s giving unbelievers time to repent before ending their time of grace permanently. But God’s patience will run out, and He will bring judgment, and none of the wicked, none of the impenitent will survive.

But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain. Finally, the Lord brings back a word of comfort and peace for the penitent. Just because the vast majority of Israel had prostituted itself with idols didn’t mean that the Lord would destroy the righteous together with the wicked. His eye was upon those who still trusted in Him and on those who repented of their wickedness and turned back to Him for mercy. The same is true for us. Just because the world around us has fallen into rampant idolatry doesn’t mean the Lord will wipe out His beloved Christians who still trust in Him. In a little while, God’s people will inherit the new heavens and the new earth. May God keep you faithful to Him, that you may always be found among the righteous! Amen.