Worthless WorshipIsaiah 29: 9-16

Isaiah 29:9-16Call to Worship (Psalm 5)

People of God, raise your voices in praise to God.

God takes delight in our presence here.Come and enter God’s presence.

We come trusting in the steadfast love of God.Let us worship the God of love and righteousness.

Isaiah 29:9-16Invocation (1 Kings 21, Galatians 2, Luke 7)

O God, our world seems in such a mess: greed triumphs over generosity; death appears

stronger than life; people judge one another harshly; sin abounds and grace recedes far

away.

Isaiah 29:9-16Forgive us, O God, when we succumb to the

forces of sin, greed, judgment, and death; when we act as if you are not here with us; when we

fail to do the things we should: welcome all people with love and joy, live in an attitude of

abundance and find ways to support your work in the world.

Isaiah 29:9-16

Like the woman with the alabaster jar, may we lay all that we are and all that we have at your feet, trusting in your forgiving, steadfast love.

Amen.

Context

In Isaiah 24:1 through Isaiah 27:13, Isaiah deals with both the tragedies of the coming Day of

the Lord and triumphs of the coming kingdom. In Isaiah 28-33, the prophet pronounces a series

of "woes" against those who have opposed God's words.

Context

The first "woe" in this section is directed against "the drunkards of Ephraim" (Isaiah 28:1-6).

"Ephraim" is a reference to Samaria, the capital city of Ephraim, which was located on a hill that

resembled a "crown."

Context

"Ephraim" is described as the "crown of pride" yet she was ripe for judgment because she had

"...erred through wine, and through strong drink" (Isaiah 28:7). Her "priest and prophet" (Isaiah 28:7) were also intoxicated and unable

to minister because of their senseless judgment and filthiness (Isaiah 28:7-9).

Context

The last "woe" of the series (Isaiah 33:1-12) is directed against Assyria. Isaiah's words are a

reference to the Assyrian invaders under Sennacherib. As soon as they completed the task assigned to them by God, of punishing Judah, God will judge them (Isaiah 10:5-16).

Context

In Isaiah 29:1-8, the second "woe" pronounced by Isaiah is against "Ariel, the city where David

dwelt" (Isaiah 29:1). This "woe" is the setting for our lesson text in Isaiah 29:9-16.

Context

"Ariel" is another name for Jerusalem which was the center of Israel's worship. "Ariel" in

Hebrew means "an altar hearth" referring to the place where the burnt offerings were sacrificed

(Ezekiel 43:13-18).

Context

Judgment is coming no matter what religious rituals you do." God promised they would be

"brought down" (Isaiah 29:4) and "visited of the LORD of host" because of their meaningless

worship (Isaiah 29:6).

Context

How had the people of God who were so wise concerning God's requirements for worship

strayed so far from genuine worship (Deuteronomy 4:6)?

Context

Part of the answer lies in Isaiah 29:9-16 where Isaiah graphically describes the condition of

God's people and the inevitable judgments to be brought upon them because of their hardness of heart and self-indulgence.

Isaiah 29:9

Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not from

wine; stagger, but not from strong drink!

Isaiah 29:9

Question: When do sober believers behave as if they were drunk and why?

Isaiah 29:9Isaiah is reporting God’s views and his views

about the people in the kingdom of Judah. By their actions and false thinking they were

blinding themselves to the truth rather than listen to Isaiah or live according to God’s law.

Isaiah 29:9God sometimes allows people to go ahead and

do wrong things. Perhaps by suffering the consequences of their wrongdoing they would

turn back to God and turn from their wrongdoing.

Isaiah 29:9Isaiah mentions that "they stagger." An

intoxicated person has no control of himself and is a danger to himself and others. But one who is "drunken" is sometimes bold and stubborn.

Alcohol always leads to bad choices.

Isaiah 29:9God's people were not "drunk" because of "strong drink." They were "drunk" on spiritual apathy and

hypocrisy. Their spiritual insensitivity was the result of their willingness to carry on with life as it was and their

unwillingness to obey God's will concerning worship.

Isaiah 29:10

For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets,

and covered your heads, you seers.

Isaiah 29:10

Question: What could cause God to increase a believer’s spiritual apathy and hypocrisy?

Isaiah 29:10As God’s judgment and punishment upon them for

their stubborn refusal to repent of their sins and return to faith and obedience to God, God poured out a punishment of spiritual sleep upon them, a

punishment of reinforcing their choice to ignore God and His warnings.

Isaiah 29:10God closed the eyes of the false prophets so they would be unable to see the future; so they would

keep teaching falsehoods that they and the people wanted to believe and listen to in their rebellion

against God.

Isaiah 29:10The "prophets and seers" are synonymous for those

who should have been hearing from God and communicating God's message.

The "rulers" are those who lead the people in daily life. Isaiah is telling us that both the educated and

uneducated have been affected by the spiritual climate sent by God.

Isaiah 29:10"Closed" and "covered" are two very important

words in this verse. "Closed" means "shut." "Covered" means "concealed."

God caused the discerning "prophet and seer" to be unable to look into the future and He caused the "rulers" to be unable to see the

immediate.

Isaiah 29:10The Apostle Paul said, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave

them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient..." (Romans

1:28).

Isaiah 29:11-12The vision of all this has become for you like the

words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,”

they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.” And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read

this,” they say, “We cannot read.”

Isaiah 29:11-12

Question: Who is guiltier? The lazy teacher or the lazy disciple?

Isaiah 29:11-12 Because the prophets and the people had

closed their eyes to reading, understanding, and obeying God’s word, their present situation and the warnings of Isaiah had become has a sealed

document that they could not understand.

Isaiah 29:11-12 Sometimes the moral law of God is given to

those who have chosen to live disobedient and self-centered lives and they try to make the

excuse that they cannot read rather than seek to learn the law of God in order to obey and please

God.

Isaiah 29:11-12Another evidence of that apathy is the

dependence of believers on others to do their spiritual study and obedience for them. They

rise or fall with their teachers for their laziness.

Isaiah 29:11-12 While God sent the "deep sleep" (v.10) and the

"closed eyes" (v.10), the decisive factor in the nation's inability to see and discern what God is saying and doing is their personal lack of desire to know what

God required of them in their worship and life.

Isaiah 29:11-12 The problem is not education, the "learned" or

"not learned." The problem is apathy and indifference.

Many professing Christians no longer read their Bible or study God's Word. They have no hunger

to know God or His will.

Isaiah 29:11-12 1 Peter 2:2 (NLT)

2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation.

Cry out for this nourishment,

Isaiah 29:13-14The Lord said: Because these people draw near with

their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a

human commandment learned by rote; so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing.

The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.

Isaiah 29:13-14What happens when "lips" are more a part of

worship than "heart?" The result is that "their fear toward me is taught by

the precept of men." That is legalism!

Isaiah 29:13-14The heart, mind, purpose, and will of those

God spoke to through Isaiah had substituted the performance of rituals of worship for true obedience to God from

hearts of love.

Isaiah 29:13-14The heart, mind, purpose, and will of those

God spoke to through Isaiah had substituted the performance of rituals of worship for

true obedience to God from hearts of love. They spoke what they had learned or

memorized, but the words meant nothing to them personally.

Isaiah 29:13-14Mark 7:7-9 (NLT) Jesus said:

7 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.

Isaiah 29:13-14When God is finished with His work, the "wise men" who thought they had it all

figured out will be exposed as fools. When God is finished with them they "shall

perish." "Perish" means they will "vanish, go away."

Isaiah 29:13-14Also, the "prudent men" or those who

presented themselves as knowing everything "shall be hid."

In other words, when God is finished you won't be able to find a man who knows

God or men who understands God's way.

Isaiah 29:13-14 The amazing things that God would do

involved their punishment. They would be being carried off into exile and King

Solomon’s Temple would be destroyed.

Isaiah 29:13-14The amazing things included the amazing stupidity of those in places of leadership,

whether political or religious, and the unwillingness of the people to seek out

and listen to the discerning (prophets such as Isaiah and others).

Isaiah 29:15 Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the

LORD, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You

turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or

the thing formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Isaiah 29:15Those who do not believe in God often make plans and live in total disregard of

God. They refuse to believe in God or they

refuse to believe that if there were a God that He would ever hold them accountable for plans and deeds that harm others and

themselves.

Isaiah 29:15These "wise" and "prudent" men would know that the prophet Isaiah would not agree with that course of action so this group sought to

"hide their counsel from the Lord." They pretend to have inside knowledge on

issues. They shut God out and work behind the scenes in the "dark."

Isaiah 29:15 When the worship of God's people becomes meaningless it results in an ignorance of the person of God and in a presumption of being

able to conceal the reality of the heart.

Isaiah 29:15 Isaiah used the analogy of the "potter" and his "clay." It is ridiculous to think the "work" of the

"potter" would say to the potter, "You didn't make me."

Pressing his point further Isaiah also says, "Would the thing made by the potter say that the potter that he didn't understand what he

had made?"

Isaiah 29:15Isaiah's point is that while the people acted as if they knew everything they actually knew little if

anything about what was going on. Only God knows everything

Conclusion True worship can never come from a mind-set

of equality or superiority with God. True worship can never come from a heart that is

hypocritical. True worship can never come from an individual who thinks his life and deeds are

somehow hidden from God or that he can outsmart God.

Conclusion The people of Isaiah's day no longer

approached God in worship with a sense of awe and wonder.

As a result of their dead ritualistic routines, God sent them spiritual blindness and exposed their pride and fleshly presumptions of equality with

God and superiority to God.

Conclusion It is at the cross that God "destroys the wisdom

of the wise, and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (1 Corinthians

1:19). If our worship is honor God we must live in the shadow of the cross!

Blessing(1 Kings 21, Galatians 2, Luke 7)

Go forth into the world as people reborn.Live generosity, not greed.Celebrate life, not death.

Revel in the abundant grace that flows over and through us, and bring that love and grace to a world

deeply in need.May we share in His peace. Amen.