Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Isaiah 34 - God Gives A Home To Partridges

Transcript

Isaiah 34 - God Gives A Home To Partridges · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
• 0:03
  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
• 0:07
  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
• 0:10
  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
• 0:14
  others. Let's dive right in.
• 0:15
  Hey, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
• 0:17
  Today we are in Isaiah 34, Isaiah 34, and today's episode
• 0:26
  is our last one for a little bit that has kind of the cosmic
• 0:32
  ramifications or cosmic phrasing to it.
• 0:36
  And so I hope that you enjoy it. There's some things that even as
• 0:42
  we talked through it, that are pictures both of the cosmic
• 0:50
  importance of our day today, that the things that happen in
• 0:57
  our world, they're not by happenstance.
• 1:00
  It's not random chance that it occurs.
• 1:03
  It's part of a larger plan, and it is a picture of what will
• 1:09
  happen at the end, that there's coming a day of ultimate
• 1:12
  fulfilment, that every single one of us are going to have
• 1:17
  portions of our story now that feel broken, incomplete.
• 1:22
  Like I don't really know that that was a good turn of events.
• 1:26
  This feels like my life is terrible.
• 1:29
  I feel like right now, if you will, that God's let me down,
• 1:33
  that this isn't a good end of the story.
• 1:36
  But the truth is, on that coming day, all of our stories will
• 1:41
  have a happy ending for those of us that have turned to the Lord.
• 1:45
  Because God will make all things right.
• 1:47
  All things are not right yet, but they are going to be.
• 1:51
  So let's begin reading in Isaiah chapter 34 and verse #1 And I'm
• 1:57
  going to remind you real quick, because you're going to hear the
• 1:59
  name Edom. That is the nation descended
• 2:03
  from Esau, Jacob's older brother.
• 2:06
  So Jacob was renamed Israel. He was Abraham's grandson and
• 2:13
  Esau was his older brother. And Esau did not love the Lord,
• 2:19
  did not want to follow in God's way.
• 2:23
  He just wanted to do what he wanted to do when he wanted to
• 2:27
  do it. And that was often very true for
• 2:31
  Jacob as well. But God in his wisdom, in his
• 2:36
  mercy, selected Jacob to be the one that the Messiah would come
• 2:41
  through his lineage, and he would make from Jacob, from
• 2:45
  Israel, the nation of the Jewish people and all all of that stems
• 2:52
  from them. So Edom was a nearby neighbor
• 2:56
  nation to Israel. They were consistently harming,
• 3:02
  pillaging, raiding, participating when other
• 3:06
  countries would come in and destroy or rob Israel, that Edom
• 3:13
  would participate in all of that that took place there.
• 3:17
  So let's begin reading in chapter 34 and verse #1 You
• 3:23
  nations come here and listen. You peoples, pay attention.
• 3:28
  Let the earth and all that fills it here, the world and all that
• 3:32
  comes from it. Yahweh is angry with all the
• 3:36
  nations, furious with all their armies.
• 3:39
  He will set them apart for destruction, giving them over to
• 3:43
  slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out,
• 3:46
  and the stench of their corpses will rise.
• 3:49
  The mountains will flow or melt with their blood.
• 3:53
  All the stars in the sky that is the host of heaven will
• 3:57
  dissolve. The sky will roll up like a
• 4:00
  scroll, and its stars will all wither as leaves wither on the
• 4:04
  vine and foliage on the fig tree.
• 4:07
  So as a reminder, whenever you see stars in the sky, you should
• 4:11
  always be thinking spiritual beings.
• 4:15
  And so here God is having his ultimate judgment that comes not
• 4:20
  just on the earth and the rulers of the land and their armies,
• 4:26
  those that, if you will, they back up the regimes of this
• 4:32
  world. He is also going to judge the
• 4:36
  spiritual beings, those stars in the sky.
• 4:39
  So even where he talks there about the sky rolling up like a
• 4:42
  like a scroll, the stars withering, the stars in the sky
• 4:46
  dissolving. The picture here is that God is
• 4:49
  going to bring ultimately final judgement on all who have done
• 4:55
  moral evil here on the land and in the sky.
• 4:59
  Think Genesis one. In the beginning God created the
• 5:01
  heavens and the earth, the skies and the land.
• 5:04
  God's going to judge the sky rulers, the spiritual beings,
• 5:08
  the demons and he is going to judge all who have done wrong on
• 5:13
  the land. Then God says as he defeats evil
• 5:19
  first in the sky, and you can look over at Revelation chapter
• 5:23
  12 to see how John phrases some of that there.
• 5:26
  Then you can also see what God will do on the land and he gives
• 5:31
  the picture of Edom itself as kind of representative for all
• 5:38
  of the nations of the world. So Edom that has consistently
• 5:42
  been against God's people, harming God's people.
• 5:45
  They have been kind of uniquely evil in that they were related.
• 5:50
  They were relatives of Israeli, yet they did not treat them with
• 5:53
  kindness or familial respect. Instead they harmed them over
• 5:59
  and over again. So verse #5 says, When my sword
• 6:03
  has drunk its fill in the heavens, it will then come down
• 6:06
  on Edom and on the people I have set apart for destruction.
• 6:11
  Yahweh's sword is covered with blood.
• 6:13
  It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with
• 6:16
  the fat of the kidneys of Rams. So here the picture is
• 6:21
  sacrifice. I should have just kept on
• 6:25
  reading. The end of verse 6 says, For
• 6:27
  Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bosra, a great slaughter in the land of
• 6:32
  Edom. The wild oxen will be struck
• 6:34
  down with them, and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
• 6:37
  Their land will be soaked with blood, and their soil will be
• 6:40
  saturated with fat. So here the armies of Edom and
• 6:47
  the, if you will, the ways in which violence is spread here on
• 6:54
  planet Earth. The picture is given that these
• 6:57
  are like bowls, those things that would be sacrificed within
• 7:03
  initially the Tabernacle and then here when Isaiah is writing
• 7:06
  the temple, that those sacrifices, those sacrifices
• 7:11
  would take place. That if you have, you know, a
• 7:13
  wild bull or something, that can certainly be a danger to
• 7:16
  individuals. And the armies of Edom are
• 7:20
  pictured here as being dangerous.
• 7:23
  And yet even their deaths serve a purpose.
• 7:26
  It goes to the glory of God who protects people from widespread
• 7:32
  violence. We can even think today in our
• 7:35
  world of the many wars that are being fought all across our
• 7:39
  world and innocence that are killed in every armed conflict.
• 7:44
  And what a abject sorrow that that is.
• 7:47
  And on the day that God returns, He is going to judge the nations
• 7:52
  and armies of this world for the violence that they have
• 7:55
  perpetuated. Verse number 84, Yahweh has a
• 7:59
  day of vengeance, a time of paying back Edom for its
• 8:02
  hostility against Zion. Edom's streams will be turned
• 8:07
  into pitch, her soil into sulfur.
• 8:10
  Her land will become burning pitch.
• 8:13
  If you remember last episode where God's presence is
• 8:16
  described as a consuming fire, that as God enters the land, all
• 8:21
  of these like nice things about the land of Edom, streams and
• 8:25
  soil and land, it all burns up. You can think of how Paul talks
• 8:30
  in forget if it's, I think it's First Corinthians chapter 3 or 4
• 8:36
  where he talks about on that day of judgment, everything that we
• 8:40
  have done, it will either be gold, silver, and precious
• 8:43
  stones that are refined by fire and they're shown to be pure and
• 8:47
  lovely and beautiful, or it will be wood, hay and stubble, those
• 8:51
  things that burn up and amount to nothing.
• 8:55
  And so here that's a picture that is being given of all of
• 8:59
  Edom's work as a nation is shown to be futile, worthless.
• 9:04
  There is nothing good or righteous in the way that they
• 9:07
  have dealt with people or with God.
• 9:10
  Verse #10 It will never go out day or night.
• 9:14
  It's smoke will go up forever. It will be desolate from
• 9:18
  generation to generation and no one will pass through it forever
• 9:22
  and ever. Eagle owls and herons will
• 9:25
  possess it, and long eared owls and Ravens will dwell there.
• 9:28
  Yahweh will stretch out a measuring line and a Plumb line
• 9:31
  over her for her destruction and chaos.
• 9:35
  No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her
• 9:37
  Princess will come to nothing. Her palaces will be overgrown
• 9:41
  with thorns, her fortified cities with thistles and briars.
• 9:45
  She will become a dwelling for jackals and abode for ostriches.
• 9:49
  The desert creatures will meet hyenas and one wild goat will
• 9:53
  call to another. Indeed, the night birds will
• 9:55
  stay there, and we'll find a resting place.
• 9:58
  Sand partridges will make their nests there.
• 10:00
  They will lay and hatch their eggs, and will gather their
• 10:03
  broods under their shadows. Indeed, the birds of prey will
• 10:07
  gather there, each with its mate, search and read the scroll
• 10:10
  of Yahweh. Not one of them will be missing.
• 10:13
  None will be lacking its mate. Because He has ordered it by my
• 10:16
  mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.
• 10:19
  He has cast the lot for them. His hand allotted their portion
• 10:23
  with a measuring line. They will possess it forever.
• 10:26
  They will dwell in it from generation to generation.
• 10:29
  So here what's being stated is Edom will become an
• 10:33
  uninhabitable location that there is no more of the kings,
• 10:39
  rulers, Princess that once caused there to be wickedness
• 10:44
  done both within the land and against other lands in the land
• 10:48
  of Judah and Israel. And instead of the people living
• 10:54
  in the land, God says I'm giving an inheritance of land.
• 10:57
  But this inheritance of land, it's not going to Israel.
• 11:00
  Instead, it's going to these desert creatures, these
• 11:03
  wilderness creatures where a place that it it'd be hard for
• 11:06
  humans to live. But all of these various birds
• 11:10
  and hyenas, wild goats, those are the things that are going to
• 11:15
  live there and they're going to have a happy home forever.
• 11:20
  Here God is setting up a a wildlife sanctuary, if you will,
• 11:25
  here in this land of Eden. And I think here couple things
• 11:29
  kind of stand out to me. Number one, that God does
• 11:32
  actually care about animals. Over and over again in
• 11:36
  Scripture, God is the one that created animals.
• 11:38
  He created animals for a purpose.
• 11:41
  He has given humanity authority over creation, over the animals
• 11:48
  and birds and fish and all of that.
• 11:51
  He wants us to take good care of them.
• 11:53
  Certainly we can enjoy them for food, you know, with lambs and
• 11:59
  things, we're able to take wool from them and make clothing for
• 12:03
  us, and so that can be a good thing.
• 12:06
  But God cares about animals. He cares about them even having
• 12:09
  homes and places to live. But that's not the main point of
• 12:12
  what's being said here. The the main point is this Edom
• 12:16
  is worse for humanity than if the land just had some animals
• 12:22
  in it. And I think that is a scathing
• 12:26
  indictment by Isaiah here that he says these people descended
• 12:31
  from Abraham just like we are. They have done so much in harm
• 12:35
  to others that it'd be better for hyenas to live in that place
• 12:40
  than it is for the Edomites to live in positions of power and
• 12:45
  authority with armies so that they So it's better for the
• 12:50
  animals to live there because the animals will not 'cause
• 12:54
  human death in the same way that Edom is.
• 12:58
  I want to ask you, is your life one that causes the benefit and
• 13:06
  joy and flourishing of others? Or are you and I sometimes
• 13:12
  living in ways that man, it it'd be nicer for someone to just,
• 13:16
  you know, have a dog as the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist,
• 13:21
  because then they could be encouraged and they could, you
• 13:24
  know, have a, a fluffy dog and enjoy being around that?
• 13:28
  Or are people genuinely blessed by my interactions with them, my
• 13:32
  encouragement of them, my prayer for them, my equipping them with
• 13:36
  the word like I want, I want my life to have meaning and purpose
• 13:41
  and blessing that is given to others.
• 13:44
  I want to encourage you in the same way like animals are
• 13:48
  wonderful and God has created the animals and God even says
• 13:51
  here like, listen, I'm going to care for the mountain goats and
• 13:53
  you guys can have this place forever.
• 13:56
  But I want to be a person that can inherit what belongs to the
• 14:00
  Lord. And when God comes to judge, I
• 14:02
  want to be one of those that experiences that good life
• 14:06
  through receiving what Jesus has done on my behalf so that I am
• 14:10
  positionally righteous before God even though I am imperfect.
• 14:15
  But may I live my life in right relationship with God and
• 14:19
  others, not constantly seeking to harm others, to ride them,
• 14:24
  bring them down, be cruel to them, gossip about them.
• 14:28
  I don't want to be that kind of person.
• 14:30
  And so I'd encourage you as well.
• 14:32
  May we be those that can inherit the land like a wild goat or the
• 14:40
  night owls or the ostriches or the jackals.
• 14:43
  Maybe he'd be one of those ones that it's good for us to be the
• 14:47
  neighbors of those around us. Thanks for tuning in.
• 14:51
  Next episode will be in chapter 35, and that'll round out this
• 14:56
  particular section of Isaiah's prophecies.
• 14:58
  And then we get into a narrative section of this book of
• 15:04
  scripture and looking forward to that.
• 15:06
  As always, like share, subscribe, leave a review on
• 15:12
  Apple Podcasts or Spotify podcasts, Leave a comment if you
• 15:16
  made it all the way to the episode.
• 15:17
  And you can just say the word. Let me grab one of these
• 15:22
  animals, Long Eared Owl. If you're on Facebook or
• 15:26
  YouTube, just comment Long Eared Owl and I'll know that you made
• 15:30
  it and you will get bonus points.
• 15:34
  I'm not sure what those bonus points can be used for, but you
• 15:36
  get it. Thanks for tuning in.
• 15:37
  God bless.