Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Isaiah 30 - Couch Potato Godzilla and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance

Transcript

Isaiah 30 - Couch Potato Godzilla and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance · 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
  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. I'm super excited for today's
• 0:19
  episode. We're going to hear a little bit
• 0:22
  about political alliances and we're specifically going to look
• 0:27
  at, as, as far as application goes, what it looks like for the
• 0:32
  people of God to trust God in their everyday.
• 0:37
  So you're watching Tabernacle talk right now.
• 0:41
  There is a strong likelihood that you would consider yourself
• 0:44
  a Christian. But just because we call
• 0:49
  ourselves Christians doesn't mean that the way that we act
• 0:54
  and make our choices and our thought processes are always
• 0:58
  correct and in line with our Christian confession of faith
• 1:02
  each and every day. And so we're going to look at
• 1:05
  how this happened in Israel, the northern Kingdom of Israel and
• 1:11
  the southern Kingdom of Judah during the time that Isaiah
• 1:14
  prophesied, and what God had to say about Israel relying on
• 1:19
  other nations in order to protect them, keep them safe,
• 1:24
  give them, if you will, the good life instead of turning in faith
• 1:30
  to God. So let's read through a, we'll
• 1:33
  do at least chapter 30 today. I think we'll do 30 and 31 time
• 1:38
  permitting, because it all has to talk about Israel's alliance
• 1:43
  with Assyria. Sorry, with Egypt against
• 1:47
  Assyria, though Judah at various times would ally itself with
• 1:51
  Assyria as well. Isaiah chapter 30 and verse #1
• 1:56
  woe to the rebellious children. This is Yahweh's declaration.
• 2:01
  They carry out a plan, but not mine.
• 2:05
  They make an alliance, but against My will, piling sin on
• 2:10
  top of sin without asking My advice.
• 2:14
  They set out to go down to Egypt in order to seek shelter under
• 2:17
  Pharaoh's protection and take refuge in Egypt's shadow.
• 2:22
  So here Israel, not because God told them to, but simply because
• 2:28
  it was what seemed like the best idea to them.
• 2:33
  They chose to ally themselves to Egypt and find protection there
• 2:38
  from the other nations that would seek to do them harm.
• 2:42
  But we read in verse #3 But Pharaoh's protection will become
• 2:46
  your shame and refuge in Egypt's shadow, your humiliation.
• 2:51
  For though his Princess are at Zoan and his messengers reach as
• 2:55
  far as Haines, everyone will be ashamed because of a people who
• 3:00
  can't help. They are of no benefit, they are
• 3:03
  no help, they are good for nothing but shame and disgrace.
• 3:08
  God says Egypt is not a good help in your journey.
• 3:13
  Says this in verse number 6A pronouncement concerning the
• 3:16
  animals of the Najaf. Though through a land of trouble
• 3:21
  and distress, of lioness and lion, of Viper and flying
• 3:25
  serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and
• 3:29
  their treasures on the humps of camels.
• 3:31
  To a people who will not help them, Egypt's help is completely
• 3:36
  worthless. Therefore I call her Rahab, who
• 3:40
  just sits, which straight up that is that's hilarious.
• 3:45
  So Rahab is, as I mentioned many, many times, that is the
• 3:51
  Leviathan. It's the giant chaos dragon sea
• 3:56
  serpent thing, the stuff of legend, the thing that wants to
• 4:01
  destroy all life on the land, the primordial Godzilla of old
• 4:08
  that wants to attack the chief storm gods of the nations of the
• 4:14
  ancient Near East. And God says Egypt is this one
• 4:19
  that though at times in Egypt's past it has been a powerful
• 4:25
  agent that has brought destruction on various parts of
• 4:28
  mankind. He says now it is Rahab.
• 4:32
  This is the Hebrew name for that kind of like sea dragon, sea
• 4:39
  serpent myth. He says Egypt is Rahab, the sea
• 4:46
  serpent, the sea dragon who just sits absolutely useless, not of
• 4:52
  any assistance to Israel. And that that to me is just so
• 4:57
  funny. It cracks me up like Godzilla,
• 5:01
  lazy Godzilla would be a a way that you could think about this
• 5:05
  or a couch potato, you know, couch potato King Kong.
• 5:11
  To use another kind of similar myth in in our cultural
• 5:17
  zeitgeist verse #8 go now, write it on a tablet in their presence
• 5:22
  and inscribe it on a scroll. It will be for the future
• 5:25
  forever and ever. They are a rebellious people,
• 5:29
  deceptive children, children who do not want to listen to
• 5:32
  Yahweh's instruction. They say to the seers, this is
• 5:36
  the people that very often in Scripture I talked about as God
• 5:41
  gives them a picture of what is going to happen in the future.
• 5:45
  And so here the people of Israel and Judah, they are telling
• 5:49
  these ones who have a connection with God and are warning them
• 5:54
  about the end results of their actions.
• 5:57
  It says, they say to the seers do not see, and to the prophets
• 6:00
  do not prophecy the truth to us, tell us flattering things,
• 6:05
  prophecy, illusions. Get out of the way, leave the
• 6:09
  pathway, rid us of the Holy One of Israel.
• 6:14
  This is the ever present danger for those that claim themselves
• 6:22
  to be Christians, to be the people of God.
• 6:26
  That we can want God around when there are times of trouble.
• 6:32
  We can want God around when we want stuff from him.
• 6:36
  But whenever God tells us something other than what we
• 6:39
  want, we just want Him to go away.
• 6:42
  We want Him to shut up. We don't want the Bible to tell
• 6:45
  us what to do. We want to tell the Bible what
• 6:47
  to do. And so I want to challenge and
• 6:49
  encourage you today. Don't be like the children of
• 6:53
  Israel here. Instead, choose, I am going to
• 6:57
  do what God says, not what I think.
• 7:00
  When I, you know, when I turn on Tabernacle talk, when I open the
• 7:05
  Word of God, when I go to my small group or my Sunday school
• 7:09
  class or you know, this Bible study, when I go to the
• 7:13
  corporate worship service together with the rest of the
• 7:16
  church on a Sunday morning, I am not going to insist on my way
• 7:21
  over God's way. I am going to submit to and obey
• 7:26
  the Word of God. God can tell me how I need to
• 7:29
  live my life because He cares about me.
• 7:32
  He loves me. He's the one that put this world
• 7:34
  together, and He knows what is actually for my good.
• 7:38
  Way more than I know. Verse #12 Therefore the Holy One
• 7:42
  of Israel says, because you've rejected this message and have
• 7:45
  trusted in oppression and deceit and have depended on them, this
• 7:50
  iniquity of yours will be like a crumbling gap, a bulge in a high
• 7:54
  wall whose collapse will come in an instant.
• 7:57
  Suddenly, its collapse will be like the shattering of a
• 8:01
  Potter's jar, crushed to pieces so that not even a fragment of
• 8:05
  pottery will be found among its shattered remains.
• 8:08
  No fragment large enough to take fire from a hearth or scoop
• 8:12
  water from a sister. For Adonai Yahweh, the Holy One
• 8:17
  of Israel, has said, you will be delivered by returning and
• 8:21
  resting. Your strength will lie in quiet
• 8:24
  confidence. So how is Israel, How is Judah
• 8:27
  going to defeat these enemies that come against them?
• 8:30
  God says you'll be delivered by returning to the Lord, trusting
• 8:34
  in and obeying Him, and resting, saying God, you will take care
• 8:39
  of this. I'm simply going to do what you
• 8:41
  have asked me to do. I'm going to do what is right.
• 8:43
  But they did not want that. They didn't want that way of
• 8:46
  dealing with the armies and the oppression.
• 8:49
  They didn't see how returning to God and obeying him and resting
• 8:54
  results in financial prosperity and military peace or national
• 9:02
  security. They didn't see how that added
• 9:05
  up. But that is what God had told
• 9:06
  them. And they said, no, we're going
• 9:08
  to rely on Egypt instead of relying on Yahweh.
• 9:13
  He says, but you are not willing.
• 9:15
  You say no, we'll we'll escape on horses, therefore you will
• 9:19
  escape and we will ride on fast horses, but those who pursue you
• 9:23
  will be faster. 1000 will flee at the threat of 1.
• 9:28
  So one person is going to be like, hey, we're going to get
• 9:30
  you. And 1000 Israelites would run
• 9:32
  away. He says at the threat of five,
• 9:35
  you will flee until you remain like a solitary pole on a
• 9:39
  mountaintop or a banner on a hill.
• 9:41
  And he says, you guys are all going to run away.
• 9:44
  You're going to be scattered. You will have no victory, no
• 9:47
  safety as a result of the fact that you ignored me and what I
• 9:51
  told you and instead you ran off to Egypt instead.
• 9:54
  Verse #18 Therefore Yahweh is waiting to show you mercy and is
• 9:58
  rising up to show you compassion.
• 10:01
  For Yahweh is a just God. All who wait patiently for him
• 10:05
  are happy. Will you choose to wait
• 10:08
  patiently for the Lord? I I forget if I mentioned this
• 10:12
  in a sermon or Tabernacle talk recently.
• 10:14
  The word for wait in Hebrew is not just OK, I'm going to sit
• 10:20
  here. It's the word Kava.
• 10:22
  It is like a vine that brings itself around.
• 10:29
  I have an AC unit at my house that there's like these little
• 10:34
  vines and it gets all these little all you I'll say like
• 10:38
  grabbers hands, you know, whatever you want to say.
• 10:41
  And it wraps itself around the little like metal grate.
• 10:44
  And so it's super hard to pull the vine off because it has all
• 10:49
  these different ways that it's holding on.
• 10:51
  And that is the word picture in Hebrew for what it means to wait
• 10:55
  on the Lord. It is that you are clinging
• 10:58
  desperately to him. It is not just that you're
• 11:00
  sitting there. It is that you are pursuing God,
• 11:03
  you are holding on to him in such a way that even as life is
• 11:07
  trying to pull you off of God, you're like, no, my, my schedule
• 11:12
  belongs to God. And so you can't take me away
• 11:14
  from him because I know what I'm doing each and every week in my
• 11:17
  time with the Lord, my time with his people and my time and
• 11:20
  worship. I'm with the Lord and my
• 11:22
  finances are with the Lord. And so you can try and pull me
• 11:25
  away, but I, I have ways in which I am giving to the Lord's
• 11:29
  work. I'm giving to the poor.
• 11:31
  I'm taking care of the people that God has given, given me.
• 11:33
  And so that's part of how I am. I'm tethered around the Lord.
• 11:38
  Even my emotions and my friendships I have within the
• 11:42
  body of Christ. I have other friendships too,
• 11:44
  but that's one of the ways that I am holding desperately to the
• 11:47
  Lord and I'm praying to him. And He has, you know, my time
• 11:51
  and my heart and my attention. He has my mind that I am wrapped
• 11:56
  up in this God. And so all who wait patiently
• 11:59
  for God are happy. And I want to encourage you, if
• 12:04
  you're not happy yet, keep waiting patiently because the
• 12:07
  Lord is faithful and He will come through.
• 12:10
  It might not be today, but it is coming.
• 12:13
  I promise. Verse #19 For people will live
• 12:16
  on Zion in Jerusalem. You'll never weep again.
• 12:20
  He'll show favor to you at the sound of your outcry.
• 12:22
  As soon as he hears, He will answer you.
• 12:26
  The Lord will give you meager bread and water during
• 12:28
  oppression, but your teacher will not hide any longer.
• 12:33
  Your eyes will see your teacher and whenever you turn to the
• 12:36
  right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind
• 12:39
  you. This is the way.
• 12:41
  Walk in it. Man.
• 12:43
  I love, I love that verse. I want that to be true in my
• 12:48
  life. I want to be so in tune to the
• 12:51
  Holy Spirit. That is, I go to take a specific
• 12:54
  path. You know, as a pastor.
• 12:56
  Actually, I I have to do this and rely on this often is I will
• 13:02
  have choices of what I should be doing in a given day or maybe a
• 13:08
  specific way that I think that a sermon or a passage of scripture
• 13:12
  should be taught or that I should deal with it.
• 13:15
  And I have, I am learning slowly, hopefully more and more
• 13:21
  to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit that as I go to go
• 13:24
  to the right or go to the left, God says this is the way, walk
• 13:28
  in it. And I want to be faithful to
• 13:30
  hear that voice of God. That's why I want to be in the
• 13:34
  Word because I want to know what the voice of God sounds like.
• 13:38
  And if it sounds like this book, then I know that it is the voice
• 13:42
  of God. Verse #22 Then you will defile
• 13:46
  your silver plated idols and your gold plated images.
• 13:49
  You'll throw them away like menstrual clothes and call them
• 13:53
  filth. On the day when people have a
• 13:54
  relationship with God, the things that used to have a hold
• 13:58
  on their life, the riches, the idols, the things that they look
• 14:01
  to for direction and purpose, they throw those away because
• 14:05
  now they have God himself. And so they don't need the
• 14:08
  riches, they don't need the idols, they don't need some
• 14:11
  other nation or some other spiritual being telling, telling
• 14:16
  them what directions they need to take.
• 14:19
  They are listening instead to the voice of God.
• 14:21
  Verse #23 Then He will send rain for your seed that you have sown
• 14:25
  in the ground, and the food, The produce of the ground will be
• 14:29
  rich and plentiful on that day. Your cattle will graze and open
• 14:32
  pastures. The oxen and the donkeys that
• 14:34
  work the ground will eat salted fodder scattered with winnowing
• 14:38
  shovel and fork. Streams flowing with water will
• 14:41
  be on every high mountain and every raised hill.
• 14:44
  On the day of great slaughter when the towers fall, the
• 14:47
  moonlight will be as bright as the sunlight, and the sunlight
• 14:50
  will be 7 times brighter, like the light of seven days on the
• 14:54
  day that Yahweh bandages his people's injuries and heals the
• 14:58
  wounds he inflicted. So certainly here there is both
• 15:02
  a picture of God bringing restoration back to Israel and
• 15:08
  Judah that they would come back into the land.
• 15:10
  That's at least one, like kind of picturesque portion of what's
• 15:13
  happening. But you cannot read that and not
• 15:15
  also think of the day when ultimately God bandages up all
• 15:20
  of the wounds that humanity as God's people as a whole have
• 15:26
  accumulated throughout our fallenness.
• 15:28
  And on that day of the Lord, day of Yahweh, Jesus himself will
• 15:33
  come back and everything will be made right.
• 15:37
  And I love that picture there of Yahweh bandaging His people's
• 15:41
  injuries. And for those things in your
• 15:43
  life right now that hurt. And it's like an open wound that
• 15:47
  maybe it's festering, maybe it's stuck around for a long time.
• 15:51
  Know that God has promised to one day bandage that injury.
• 15:55
  And that day of restoration is coming.
• 15:57
  My friend. Verse #27 Look, the name of
• 16:01
  Yahweh is coming from far away, his anger burning and heavy with
• 16:05
  smoke. His lips are full of fury, and
• 16:08
  his tongue is like a consuming fire.
• 16:11
  His breath is like an overflowing torrent that rises
• 16:14
  to the neck. He comes to sift the nation's in
• 16:17
  a sieve of destruction, and to put a bridle on the jaws of the
• 16:21
  people's to lead them astray. Your singing will be like that
• 16:25
  on the night of a holy festival, and your heart will rejoice like
• 16:28
  one who walks to the music of a flute, going up to the mountain
• 16:32
  of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel.
• 16:34
  And Yahweh will make the splendor of His voice heard and
• 16:37
  reveal His arm striking in angry wrath, and a flame of consuming
• 16:41
  fire in driving rain, a torrent and hailstones.
• 16:45
  Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahweh.
• 16:48
  He will strike with a rod, and every stroke of the appointed
• 16:51
  staff that Yahweh brings down on him will be to the sound of
• 16:55
  tambourines and liars. He will fight against him with
• 16:58
  brandished weapons. Indeed, Topheth has been ready
• 17:01
  for the King for a long time. It's funeral pyre is deep and
• 17:05
  wide with plenty of fire and wood, the breath of Yahweh like
• 17:09
  a torrent of burning sulfur Kindles.
• 17:13
  So here God prophecies the downfall, the destruction of
• 17:18
  Assyria. And there's the mention of of
• 17:21
  music, the joy that comes to people as this cruel, oppressive
• 17:27
  nation is finally brought down and destroyed.
• 17:30
  And they're even the, the picture is of what will
• 17:33
  ultimately happen to every worldly Kingdom and nation that
• 17:38
  all of the nations of this world, allied as they are
• 17:42
  against the Lord and against his Messiah, they will one day
• 17:46
  answer and they will fall. And in case, as we read through
• 17:52
  some of those verses, there there comes some concern or or
• 17:57
  compassion to your heart. I I want you to think about
• 18:00
  those even right now in our world that are suffering under
• 18:04
  oppressive regimes, that their nations and their armies are
• 18:08
  regularly harming and attacking people, that people are being
• 18:13
  persecuted simply for following the Lord or for sharing their
• 18:17
  faith or for worshipping Jesus, and yet they are being punished
• 18:22
  as a result by their nation to those people.
• 18:26
  That is what this promise comes to.
• 18:29
  It's a it's a promise of hope that the wrongs that are being
• 18:34
  perpetuated against God's people and against humanity at large
• 18:38
  will one day be judged. And so we can rely on the
• 18:42
  justice and the holiness of God that his love means he will
• 18:46
  rescue and he will make it right.
• 18:50
  And so I want to encourage you even in that way.
• 18:52
  May that provoke us to deal rightly with others, to deal
• 18:56
  kindly with others, that we would do what is just and good
• 19:00
  and knowing that that judgment day is coming.
• 19:03
  And so on that day, I want to have a behaved in a Christ like
• 19:07
  way. I don't want to behave like the
• 19:10
  nation's. Well, I hope this episode was an
• 19:13
  encouragement to you. There was a whole bunch of
• 19:16
  different topics and things. And so I really enjoyed the time
• 19:19
  and I'm grateful for you being on this journey with me.
• 19:22
  I want to encourage you as always, if you're listening on
• 19:25
  Spotify or an Apple podcast, please leave a review, like
• 19:29
  share, subscribe, do whatever you want to do and look forward
• 19:34
  to being with you next episode in chapter 31, which will have
• 19:38
  some similarities, some things that will will overlap with this
• 19:42
  episode, but I think it'll be a good time together.
• 19:44
  God bless.