This word of judgment we have read today acknowledges deeply who is really in control. There are those who set themselves up against God. We see this in the first verse, Are you destroyed or who yourself have not been destroyed? You traitor whom none has betrayed. These are the ones who are in opposition to God. These are the ones who have come in and done these terrible things to the people of Israel and of Judah, but they now understand who they need to call out to.

What we see here in Isaiah 31 is a return to this idea that the people of Israel are going down to Egypt to find safety and to find strength. They're putting their hope in men. They're putting their hope in chariots and horses and armies instead of trusting in God, the one who has declared that he is in covenant with them, that has proven himself to be faithful to his people. Remember, these people who are doing this, they know their history. They know that God has had their back and they're going to Egypt, the place that they were leaving from.

We might come to this and see the heading that the ESV puts on this, The Lord is gracious, and think that maybe we wouldn't have very much judgment language here. But we have been reading the Book of Isaiah, have we not? And we have seen this connection between the judgment of God and the grace of God. Now, this only makes sense to us, but it's easy for us to often separate the two right?

As the word of the Lord comes to Isaiah and God speaks, he lays it all on the line here, doesn't he? Ah, stubborn children. Now, that's an imagery that we can easily understand, can't we? Now, we might think of a child that we know that is particularly stubborn or was when they were younger, but I don't think we need any specifics here. We know what a stubborn child looks like. We know that stature, that way that they stand when they're being stubborn. They just are being that way

As we continue through the Book of Isaiah, we once again see language of judgment, but we also see this idea of the faithfulness of God. We see that things are so bad in Judah, things are so bad in Jerusalem that they don't even understand what is happening. We see here in verse 9, Estonish yourselves and be astonished, blind yourselves and be blind, be drunk, but not with wine. Stagger, but not with strong drink. In other words, they don't get it.

Again, we get an idea that the people are hearing these judgments from the Lord through the mouth of the prophet, Isaiah, but they've decided what differences does it make. Notice what it says here. Hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem. They're like, God isn't going to do anything to us. We're fine here. We've seen how God has judged other places, and that's not going to happen to us.

We are back to words of judgment. Today, we once again see that this judgment is on Ephraim and Jerusalem. These judgments are to the people of God. These are not to outside people. And in fact, as we get to the end of this section that we've read today, we're actually going to see that God is once again going to use people from outside the Hebrew group of people in a way to judge them. But we see here that the problem is pride, don't we?

As we come to Isaiah 27, we see a lot more good news than words of judgment. But this all is happening, this God driving out the evil and restoring his people is in view of the idea of judgment, is of him bringing his people back to himself of doing this discipline for the purpose of restoring his people. But we start out here with the idea that God is going to overthrow evil. Notice in verse 1, in that day, the Lord, with his hard and great and strong sword, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent.

As we come to chapter 26 today, it starts out with a little bit of a feeling that maybe this isn't going to be so much about judgment. Maybe it'll be a little bit more positive here than things that we have seen. But then we get into it. And even though the language for us, our modern mindset, I think, reads this a little bit differently as we come to it. And then we see that this is pretty harsh judgment language as well. I'll explain what I mean. We see verse two, Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you, trust in the Lord forever.

As we have been looking at all of these prophecies of judgment in the Book of Isaiah, I've been pointing out that this is a good reminder for us that God judges evil, that God has something greater going on, that He is holy, that He is just, and that he is in control. Here we see that, don't we? Because all of this judgment is over all the nations of all these places. It means that God has power over all things and that he is doing something here. He is doing something to the greater good for the greater bringing of glory to Himself. We see that here God is going to swallow up death forever.

So, isn't this just another happy passage? More words of judgment. This is the norm for us, and this is what we should expect in a book of prophecy. We've seen this as we've gone through some of the minor prophets. But here we're seeing this in a larger book, and it almost feels like it's unrelenting, right? That there's this constant idea of judgment. And we've seen in the last few chapters on these judgments on these different nations.

As we come to this oracle concerning Tyre and Sidon, we get a feel of the way in which the economic part of their existence is very important. They seem to be having all this economic success. They have done this by their own power, it would seem, but God is actually going to use that as a means of judgment against them. He's going to use this in that way. And we see here in verse 9 that the Lord of hosts has purposes it to defile the pompous pride of all glory to dishonored all the honored of the earth. Now, the idea that is being expressed to us here is that they have used these things for a terrible purpose.

This is a very interesting, prophetic word here, isn't it? Because we have seen the focus being other places on other nations. And now, Isaiah is turning it back around. God is speaking about the people of Jerusalem. And it's interesting what is done here in how Jerusalem is being spoken of. The oracle concerning the Valley of Vision. Wait a minute. Isn't Jerusalem on a hill? Well, the idea here is that they think they have vision, they think they can see, they think everything is fine, but their hill has become a valley. That's the idea being expressed here.

We get another glimpse at just how difficult all this language of judgment is for Isaiah here, don't we? You know, we have been looking at Isaiah and seeing how difficult these passages of judgment are and coming away with just this sense that this is a heavy weight, that this is judgment upon judgment. Now, there has been good news in there, there has been a lot of good things actually, amidst all this judgment, but it is continually heavy. And we see this in verse two when Isaiah says, a stern vision is told to me this is not a good thing, it is a hard thing. And notice what he says, the traitor betrays and the destroyer destroys.

Well, if the prophets of God don't find themselves in the most awkward of positions, often they are asked to do things that are a picture for the people of the circumstances that they will be in. Well, Isaiah is giving a picture to these people. It's a sign against Egypt and Kush that they're going to be led away. And as captives. This imagery here, you see, go lose the sack cloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet. The idea is that they're taking this off because, well, they are captives. They are being let away. They are at the mercy of someone else. God is speaking of this judgment that is to come.

So, the prophetic words continue to flow from the pen of Isaiah, as he is inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are oracles of judgment once again. We see this time that he is speaking Egypt, and there is some unbelievably powerful and vivid language in this statement to Egypt. I particularly like the second half of verse 1. The idol of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

Well, even though we have had a few weeks off from dwell in the Word, we come back to Isaiah, and we are once again back to a passage of judgment. Are we surprised? No, this is what we have been seeing is we have been working our way through this book of prophecy. We see here that the language isn't quite as harsh, but yet it is very clear that this is about judgment, because we have this idea that Syria has come and has brought judgment on Israel, but then God is going to judge Syria as well