Isaiah 3:1-15

CHAPTER THREE

3.

THE VENGEANCE UPON DECADENCE Isaiah 3:1 to Isaiah 4:1

a. THE WEALTHY

TEXT: Isaiah 3:1-15

1

For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water;

2

the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder;

3

the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skillful enchanter.

4

And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

5

And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.

6

When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand;

7

in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the people.

8

For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

9

The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves.

10

Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

11

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him.

12

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

13

Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples.

14

Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof; It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses:

15

what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

QUERIES

a.

What is the meaning of babes ruling over them?

b.

Why did they not hide their sin?

c.

How were children their oppressors?

PARAPHRASE

The Lord of Hosts is about to cut off Jerusalem's and Judah's food and water supplies; He is about to kill her leaders; He will destroy her armies, judges, prophets, elders, army officers, businessmen, lawyers, expert craftsmen and magicians. Israel's kings will be immature boys and they will rule like capricious children. And the worst sort of anarchy will prevaileveryone stepping on someone else, neighbors fighting neighbors, youths revolting against authority, criminals sneering at honorable men. The days will be characterized by such widespread poverty, ruin and destitution, that when men find one of their brethren who seems to be prosperous they will try to force him to be their king, saying, you have extra clothing, so you be our king and take care of this mess we are all in. He will reply, Absolutely not! I do not want any part of leadership in such a state of affairs as these. Judah's civil government will be in utter ruin because its people have spoken against all that God stands for and have acted in the same way. They have refused to worship Him; they have exhibited their brazen rebellion before the eyes of His glorious presence. The evil thoughts of their heart they brazenly manifest in their facial expressions. And they boast about their sins being as bad as those of Sodomthey show no shame about it at all. How utterly horrible! They have sealed their own doom! Still, all will be well for the godly man. Tell him that he will be rewarded with goodness because he has done goodness. But say to the wicked, Your doom is certain! You too shall be rewarded according to what you have doneevil! O My people! Can you not see what fools your rulers are? They are as weak and vacillating as women. They are as foolish and capricious as little children, playing at being king. True leaders? No, misleaders! They are leading you down the path of evil unto destruction. Look! The Lord is standing upHe is preparing to act as Prosecutor and Judgeto convict and sentence. First to feel the wrath of his judgment will be the elders and the princes, for they have defrauded the poor. They have grown prosperous with the properties they have extorted from the helpless poor. They have literally consumed the poor. How dare you grind My people by your greedy oppression into nothingness. You press them and squeeze them until there is nothing left of them. This is the accusation of the Lord God of Hosts!

COMMENTS

Isaiah 3:1-4 RUINED GOVERNMENT. Every necessity will be taken away from Jerusalem and Judah. Every stay and staff. Bread and water are essential for physical life, but they would disappear when God stepped forth to judge the land for its sins. Civil and cultural stay and staff (perhaps even more necessary than bread and water) would also be taken away. Every form of authority would disappear:

a.

mighty manhero; man of valor already tested in battle

b.

man of warcommon soldier; lower in rank than mighty man

c.

judgecivil officer who arbitrated civil cases

d.

prophetone who delivered God's revelation to the people (with the prophet gone would come a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Cf. Amos 8:11)

e.

divinernot a legitimate support, but one depended upon, nevertheless, by the people. The entire present order of things, the Judean way of life was to be changed radically.

f.

captain of fiftydesignates a particular officer (Cf. 2 Kings 1:9; Exodus 18:25; 1 Samuel 8:12).

g.

honorable menfavored personsthose who had the favor of the king, probably occupied positions of responsibility

h.

counsellorone who served the public in counseling

i.

expert artificerone who is wise or skillful with respect to arts (Cf. 2 Kings 24:14 ff; Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 29:2).

j.

skillful enchanterone who whispered or muttered magical formulas; not a legitimate office

In the place of experienced and sagacious adult authorities, God would cause children and babes (literally: puerilities) to rule over them. Incompetent, inexperienced, childish, brat-like rulers would be substituted for Jerusalem and Judah. A whole line of youthful kings followed Hezekiah. After him, only one was 25 years of age (the legal age of a Jew was 30):

Jehoahaz

- 23 yrs. old; 2 Kings 23:31

Amon

- 22 yrs. old; 2 Kings 21:19

Zedekaih

- 21 yrs. old; 2 Kings 24:18

Jehoiachim

- 18 yrs. old; 2 Kings 24:8

Mannasseh

- 12 yrs. old; 2 Kings 21:1

Josiah

- 8 yrs. old; 2 Kings 22:1

It is the hotheadedness, the over-confidence, and the recklessness of youth that is stressed here. The lack of maturity in judgment and decision would be the ruin of the nation. As an Arabian writer said, A blow in the face by an axe is easier to take than the rule of a boy. Young writes: When respect for age goes, moral anarchy is at hand. Respect for old age had been coupled in the law with the fear of God (Leviticus 19:32). When all authority passes, respect for age also passes. One evidence of the degeneration of a government and people is seen in the manner in which the aged are treated. The N.T. clearly teaches Christians to respect the authority of age (especially of those appointed elders and overseers of the Lord's church) (Cf. 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 1 Timothy 5:1-24; 2 Timothy 3:2; Titus 3:1 ff; Hebrews 13:7; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5; Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20, etc.). The childish vexation of Ahab, king of Israel, because he could not have Naboth's vineyard, (Cf. 1 Kings 21:1 ff) is a pointed example of what type of rulers would soon come to Judah because of their sin, (Cf. Ecclesiastes 10:5-7; Ecclesiastes 10:16-17).

Isaiah 3:5-7 RESULTING CHAOS. Social chaos is inevitable. Oppression by one another (everyman did that which was right in his own eyes, for there was no king in Israel [Judges 17:6, etc.]), is the certain result of such moral anarchy. The spirit of Rehoboam (rebellion) would take precedence over the spirit of Solomon (wise judgment) and the result would be rashness, recklessness and failure. Those who should occupy a place of subserviency arrogate to themselves places of power. Men will seek to appoint rulers on the mere basis of possessing a few garments. The extremely critical condition of Judah appears in this prophecy. Anyone who possesses extra clothing will be accosted and forced to try to rescue the nation from civil economic and international ruin. The one accosted will vehemently refuse the pressure. In the first place he does not consider himself to possess the means necessary to alleviate the existing conditions; and in the second place he considers the circumstances impossiblethe ruined nation beyond all helpand he does not want the responsibility. He refuses to be a healer because Judah is beyond being healed. It is indeed tragic, in nation or church, that conditions can become so calamitous that a righteous man will refuse to undertake the responsibilities of leadership !

Isaiah 3:8-12 THE REASONTHE PEOPLE. In word and in deed-speaking and acting in rebellion against the Lord. It is not out of ignorance they have sinned! It is deliberate sin. They have done it knowing full well the eyes of the Lord of Glory are upon ittheir brazenness is like that of Sodom. They boast of their sin (Cf. Jude 1:8-16; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 2 Timothy 4:3-4; Romans 1:32).

By such blatant disregard of the moral and spiritual government of God, they have earned for themselves the consequences of moral and spiritual anarchy. They have cut off their noses to spite their faces. They have done evil to themselves! If man and his universe is to be governed by any moral principles of right and wrong at all, then wrong must be punished. Anyone who deliberately does wrong deserves punishment, he deserves the fruit of his doings.

But God is not unjust or unmerciful to forget the intentions and deeds of the righteous. God is fair! God is merciful! If a man is righteous of heart (wanting to do right) and righteous of deed (doing rightthough sometimes sinning ignorantly), God will reward that man with the fruit of his doings, (Cf. Matthew 25:31-46). God's judgment is not indiscriminateHe judges omnisciently as well as omnipotently.

Those who were supposed to lead the people were oppressing them and leading them into abject slavery, morally and politically. Their rulers were capricious as children and vacillating as women. They lacked the stability that grown men naturally had.

Isaiah 3:13-15 RESPONSE OF JEHOVAH. It is not merely with foreign nations they shall have to contendAlmighty God, the Lord of Hosts, arises to contend with this people. The great sin of the time was oppression of the poor by the rich. God is represented as the advocate and helper for the cause of the downtrodden. He enters into judgment with the leaders and elders of Judah and accuses them of having oppressed and defrauded His people (Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, accuses the rich of skinning the poor alive!). Such sin exemplifies precisely the injustice, greed, and irresponsibility of the rich and ruling and is a perfect example of the cruelty which God hates. The rich and ruling had devoured for themselves what did not belong to themGod's own people (vineyard). When the prophets came to warn them to leave the harvest of God's vineyard to Him, they killed the prophets. And when the Heir (the Son) came, they killed him (Cf. Luke 20:9-18). How brazen could they behow did they dare to mistreat the precious heritage of the Almighty God?

QUIZ

1.

Why mention the taking away of bread and water only?

2.

What is a mighty man and an expert artificer?

3.

What is meant by saying that children and babes would rule Judah?

4.

Why seek a man with clothing to be ruler?

5.

Why would such a man refuse to rule?

6.

Why mention the righteous here?

7.

Did women actually rule over the nation of Judah at this time? What does Isaiah 3:12 mean?