Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 8: The lure of the adultery power and wealth only leads to confusion.

Title: Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 8: The lure of the adultery power and wealth only leads to confusion.        

 

Announcementsopening prayer:

 

 

Unfortunately, for so much of their history, Israel is also a people in confusion due to their apostasy.

 

Given directly after the prophecy of Christ coming to break the yoke upon Israel:

 

ISA 9:8 The Lord sends a message against Jacob, And it falls on Israel.

 

"message" - dabar = the messenger of the Lord which comes to either destroy or to heal. It runs through the entire earth swiftly. It has the power of life and death. It either brings healing or judgment. God sends it from heaven and it will not  return to Him without accomplishing what He desires.

 

Thus does the Lord now send a word against the house of Jacob and this heavenly messenger descends into Israel to communicate divine revelation taking shelter, as it were, in the soul of the prophet.

 

ISA 9:9 And all the people know it, That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

 

So many calamities have fallen upon Ephraim, but they are little humbled. They simply boast that they will replace what was lost with better things. This is the mindset of the person who sees his foundation crumble but won't admit it was a bad foundation. He stands on the rubble and boasts of rebuilding on the same pile. How many times must the house be built and rebuilt upon the sand before one admits to himself that he has been wrong and that he must build upon the rock?

 

From here we turned to Isaiah 48 and witnessed the man who took a log of wood and with one half he burned it to cook his  meals and with the other half, he carved an idol and bowed down to it.

 

ISA 44:20

He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

 

Is his heart deceived because God has made it that way or is it deceived because he has chosen against God as His Savior and Lord?

 

ISA 9:9 And all the people know it, That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

 

ISA 9:10 "The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with smooth stones [carved - emphasizes their work]; The sycamores have been cut down, But we will replace them with cedars [represents - of their own choosing]."

 

ISA 9:11 Therefore the Lord raises against them adversaries from Rezin [king of Damascus], And spurs their enemies on,

 

ISA 9:12 The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west; And they devour Israel with gaping jaws. In spite of all this His anger does not turn away, And His hand is still stretched out.

 

Ephraim would be swallowed up by AramSyria who had been subjugated by Assyria, and were at this time tributary to it-and Judah would be swallowed up by the Philistines. But this difficulty would be very far from being the end of the punishments of God. Because Israel would not turn, the wrath of God would not turn away. Ephraim would fall completely into the hands of the Assyrians and Judah into the hands of Babylon.

 

ISA 9:13 Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them, Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.

 

ISA 9:14 So the Lord cuts off head and tail from Israel, Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.

 

This first annotation is a reference to the rulers of the nation [the palm] and the dregs of society [bulrush or marsh].

 

ISA 9:15 The head is the elder and honorable man, And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.

 

Palm: rulers

Bulrush: lowest class

 

The chiefs and the poor alike are apostate. They will be cut off along with the false prophets.

 

The second annotation refers to the chiefs of the nation were the head of the national body; and behind, like a wagging dog's tail, sat the false prophets with their flatteries of the people.

 

ISA 9:16 For those who guide this people are leading them astray; And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.

 

The nation had come all the way down to this. Those who promised to lead by a straight road led astray, and those who suffered themselves to be led by them were as good as already swallowed up by the grave and judgment.

 

The head and the tail [leadership and clergy] work together in confidence that they will continue to reap the benefits of material goods and power. In this case the head refers to the leaders and the tail to the false prophets. The bulrush are the poor class who believe both the head and the tail above Jehovah's word. How many times has this played out in history, especially when the tyrant assumes the religious responsibility for the nation (Henry VIII) or when the church and the ruler are alike corrupt and in bed with one another?

 

How many times in the history of the church has an apostate ruler united with an apostate church in order to rule and rob a nation of its wealth and so many of the poor join their wickedness?

 

This has happened quite often from the Roman Empire to modern times. Yet in every generation in every nation, God has had a remnant of believers, sometimes so small in number, and they continue to carry the torch of truth, even to the cost of their lives.

 

"The universall defection, whereof Saint Paul did prophesy, is easy to be espyed as well in religion as in manners. The corruption of life is evident, and religion is not measured with the playne Worde of God, but by custome, consuetude [custom with legal force], will, consent, and determination of men." [John Knox: Scottish reformer]  

 

There were so many after the reformation to which the gospel and the word of God were opened. In nation after nation the Bible was translated in their native language and the common man could read for himself what the national churches so often hid so that they could maintain their stranglehold upon them and continue to reap the power and wealth that accompanied it. During those years the histories of England, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and Russia are filled with pages of the same story. No matter what the country or culture, men everywhere are the same.

 

Following falsehood gives a false confidence for a time, a confidence which is unshakeable but so temporary. It always crumbles into confusion.

 

In Isa 1-4 the foregoing prophecy has run through all the different phases of prophetic exhortation; and its leading thought is the overthrow of the false glory of Israel, and the perfect establishment of true glory through the medium of judgment.

 

Isaiah: prophet in Judah in the 9^th century BC just a generation before the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. Chap 1-4: the prophetic exhortation concerning the overthrow of the false glory of Israel and the establishment of the true glory through judgment.

 

The basis of the address in chapter 5 is a parable representing Israel as the vineyard of Jehovah, which, contrary to all expectation, had produced bad fruit, and therefore was given up to devastation. What kind of bad fruit it produced is described in a six-fold "woe;" and what kind of devastation was to follow is indicated in the dark nocturnal conclusion to the whole address. We will only look at the first two woes leading to the phrase, “my  people go into exile for lack of knowledge.”

 

ISA 5:1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved

A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.

My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

 

ISA 5:2 And He dug it all around, removed its stones [Canaanites],

And planted it with the choicest vine.

And He built a tower in the middle of it,

And hewed out a wine vat in it;

Then He expected it to produce good grapes,

But it produced only worthless ones.