Isaiah 9:8-10:4 The Lord’s Anger against Israel

by Larry Ferrell | January 26, 2018
We are at another of those points in the book where the focus returns suddenly to present realities, in this case the sad condition of the northern kingdom (Israel) and its imminent demise. It’s remarkable to see a southerner (from Judah) like Isaiah so even-handed in his assessment of the two kingdoms. But he understands that “Israel” in a theological sense is one people (north and south together) ruled by the Lord, so what happens in the north is just as significant for him as what happens in the south. But Judah was already infected with the same evils.

This four stanza poem is a classic of biblical social analysis, impressive in its logic, and frightening in its inevitability. The Word which the Lord has sent has fallen on deaf ears and from this easily dismissed beginning everything else follows as certainly as night follows day. The poem is either a prophetic forecast of events or a prophetic meditation bringing out the significance of events which have already taken place. The same issue faced Israel as Judah: would they accept and live by the Word of the Lord? The whole logic of Isaiah’s social analysis stems from this question. The Bible insists large scale national and international consequences follow from spiritual causes. There is no escape from the Word. All the people will know it. The word spoken and refused becomes the same message turned to chastisement. Their pride will not protect them against the coming fulfillment of the word.

In verse 10, the bricks falling down could refer to the earthquake which took place in the reign of Jeroboam II (786 – 746 BC). It was the voice of God, but they took it as a challenge to rise to the occasion: they were equal to it! On the other hand, the words may be metaphorical, indicating an awareness that things are falling apart met by a spirit of self-confidence towards the future, never stopping to read the lessons of the past. Not only will the set-back be overcome but the future will outshine the past as dressed stone and cedars surpass (mud) bricks and (common sycamore) fig trees. Pride made Israel think it would recover and rebuild in its own strength. Even though God made the people of Israel a nation and gave them the land they occupied, they put their trust in themselves rather than in Him. Too often we take pride in our accomplishments, forgetting that it is God who has given us our resources and abilities. We may even become proud of our unique status as Christians. God is not pleased with any pride or trust in ourselves because it cuts off our contact with Him.

The bricks have fallen, now the leaders fall (vv, 13-17). The consequences of rejecting the Lord’s Word unfold. Refusing revealed truth and therefore relying on unaided human wisdom, they find that it’s not enough. Their leaders become misleaders and everyone comes off the worse; from young men in their prime, who might be thought able to look after themselves, to the defenseless fatherless and widows, who are in any case without resource. Even the virtues which the Lord loves cannot be had without commitment to the Lord. When the Word is rejected every grace is subject to erosion. Under deficient leadership the door is opened to unchecked self-seeking. Verses 18-21 expose the betrayal of brotherliness, the essential barrenness of the acquisitive life and the breakdown of social cohesiveness. All this is attributed to a twofold cause: it’s the natural progress of wickedness but it’s also the implementation of the Lord’s wrath.

The fourth stanza (10:1-4) returns to the topic of leadership but not in the same way as verses 13-17. There the charge was general – inept, misleading leaders. Here the charge is of blatant misrule, the willful making of decrees in the interest of class-division and personal advantage. In the end, social unruliness (vv. 13-21) resolves itself into the dominance of an unscrupulous clique who write laws for their own ends.

Isaiah 9:8-10:4 Reflection Questions:
Does God feel distant to you? Could it be your pride and trust in yourself?
Can you remember of a time when you used human wisdom and found that it wasn’t enough? What was the outcome?
How does this study impact your leadership with family, job, church, etc?
What did Jesus have to say about those who used laws to their own ends?

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Philippians 2:12-13 Work Out Your Salvation

by Larry Ferrell | February 2, 2018
I don’t know who it was who first thought that being spiritual means withdrawing from the world, but the idea certainly entered the Christian church at an early period and has had detrimental effects ever since. In the early days of the church a Syrian monk named Simon Stylites sat on top of a pillar fifty feet high to avoid contact with the world. The Egyptian hermit Anthony lived most of his life in the desert, and there were others like him. These men were thought to be spiritual primarily because of their withdrawal. The Bible does not support this view of spirituality! No Christian must ever say that spending time alone with God is unnecessary, especially time spent in prayer. Yet the Bible never allows us to think that meditation has achieved its purpose for us unless it results in practical application. Truth leads to action, and there is no value to a mountaintop experience unless it helps us to live in the valleys.

Philippians 2:12 is a problem for Christians who neglect the context and assume, as a result, that the verse supports the idea of a “self-help” salvation. But the verse does not teach that. On the contrary, it teaches that because you are already saved, because God has already entered into your life in the person of the Holy Spirit, because you, therefore, have His power at work within you – because of these things you are now to strive to express this salvation in your conduct. This should be evident for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the clear meaning of the sentence itself. It says “work out your salvation (not, work toward or for or at your salvation). And no one can work his salvation out unless God had already worked it in.

The second reason why this verse refers to the outward conduct of those who have been saved is that there is a clear parallel between Philippians 2:12-15 and Deuteronomy 32:3-5. The parallel shows that Paul was thinking of Deuteronomy as he wrote to the Philippians. Paul was about to be taken out of this world himself, as Moses was. He did not know whether he would be killed immediately or whether he would be delivered for a short time, but he knew that this would probably be his last charge to his beloved friends at Philippi. But God has delivered the Philippians, and now, because of this deliverance, they were to work out the salvation that God had so miraculously given. They were to strive for the realization of God’s love, peace, holiness, goodness, and justice in their lives.

We have seen that we are to work out our salvation that God has worked in, but to see the whole picture one more thought must be added: Even as we work out our salvation we are to know that it is actually God’s Holy Spirit in us who does the working. Paul writes, “Therefore…work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (v. 12). But no sooner has he said this than he immediately adds, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (v. 13). It is actually God who does the working. God’s working begins with our wills, for the verse says that God works in us first to will and then to act out His good purpose. Willing always comes before doing.

We will never understand the doctrine of God’s working to form a person’s will until we realize that apart from the work of God in his or her heart through Jesus Christ a person does not have free will where spiritual realities are concerned. I know that someone will want to reply, “What! Do you mean to tell me that I cannot do anything I want to?” The answer is, “yes, you cannot.” You have free will to decide whether you will go to work or pretend you are sick. You can order turkey over roast beef at a restaurant. But you cannot exercise your free will in anything that involves your physical, intellectual, or spiritual capabilities. By your own free will you cannot decide that you are going to have a 50 percent higher I.Q. than you do or that you will have, or run the 100 dash in four seconds. You do not have free will in anything intellectual or physical.

More significantly, you do not have free will spiritually. You cannot choose God. Adam and Eve had free will to obey or to disobey God’s command regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they disobeyed they fell away from God. They lost the free will to choose God. Since Adam and Eve, all people are born with the same inability to choose Him. Some are complacent; some are angry. Some are silent and philosophical. Some are resigned; some are anxious. But all are unable to come to God. No one does come to God until God reaches down by grace into the mud pit of human sin and impotence and lifts him up and places him again on the banks of the pit and says, “This is the way; walk in it.” This is what God does in salvation.

We must face this truth. Even if every generation of mankind and every city and village on earth had a John the Baptist to point to Jesus Christ to call us to Him, or if God rearranged the stars of heaven to spell out, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved,” no one would come or believe. If God sent His angels with the sound of a celestial trumpet to call us to repentance no one would repent. If you have come to God, it is only because God has first entered your life by His Holy Spirit to quicken your will, to open your eyes to His truth, and to draw you irresistibly to Himself. It is only after this that you are able to choose the path that He sets before you.

If you have seen this truth, you are ready to see that the same God who works in you to will also works through that will to do according to His good purpose. Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks twice of our works, the things that we do. One kind of work is condemned because it comes out of ourselves and is contaminated by sin. The other kind of work is encouraged because it comes from God as He works within the Christian. The verses say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works [that is, of human working], so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works [that is, the result of God’s working], which God prepared in advance for us to do.” These verses are really Paul’s own commentary upon Philippians 2:12-13, for they tell us that although God can never be satisfied with any good that comes out of human beings, He is satisfied and pleased with the good that is done by Christians through the power of Jesus Christ within them. Through that power the tyranny of sin is broken, the possibility of choosing for God is restored, and a new life of communion with God and holiness is set before the Christian. The power of Christ within is a wonderful reality for Christians, for through it we may act according to God’s good purpose. We do not boast of ourselves or of human attainments. But we do boast in God! In Him we have all things and are enabled to work out our salvation.

Philippians 2:12-13 Reflection Questions:
Are you working out your salvation in your daily conduct by showing God’s love, peace, holiness, goodness, and justice in your lives?
Have you ever felt the power of God within enabling you to do what God desires?
What is God asking you to do?

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