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“His Hand is Stretched Out” (Isaiah 13:1-14:27, Mark 2:18-22)

Pastor Bowman, September 1, 2019
Part of the Isaiah series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

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Isaiah 13–14:27 (Listen)

13:1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2   On a bare hill raise a signal;
    cry aloud to them;
  wave the hand for them to enter
    the gates of the nobles.
3   I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
    and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
    my proudly exulting ones.
4   The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
    as of a great multitude!
  The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathering together!
  The LORD of hosts is mustering
    a host for battle.
5   They come from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
  the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole land.
6   Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
    as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7   Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart will melt.
8   They will be dismayed:
    pangs and agony will seize them;
    they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
  They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.
9   Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
  to make the land a desolation
    and to destroy its sinners from it.
10   For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will not give their light;
  the sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not shed its light.
11   I will punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
  I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
    and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12   I will make people more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13   Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
  at the wrath of the LORD of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.
14   And like a hunted gazelle,
    or like sheep with none to gather them,
  each will turn to his own people,
    and each will flee to his own land.
15   Whoever is found will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16   Their infants will be dashed in pieces
    before their eyes;
  their houses will be plundered
    and their wives ravished.
17   Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
    who have no regard for silver
    and do not delight in gold.
18   Their bows will slaughter the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.
19   And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
    the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
  will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when God overthrew them.
20   It will never be inhabited
    or lived in for all generations;
  no Arab will pitch his tent there;
    no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21   But wild animals will lie down there,
    and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
  there ostriches will dwell,
    and there wild goats will dance.
22   Hyenas will cry in its towers,
    and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
  its time is close at hand
    and its days will not be prolonged.

14:1 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

3 When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

  “How the oppressor has ceased,
    the insolent fury ceased!
5   The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
    the scepter of rulers,
6   that struck the peoples in wrath
    with unceasing blows,
  that ruled the nations in anger
    with unrelenting persecution.
7   The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
    they break forth into singing.
8   The cypresses rejoice at you,
    the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
  ‘Since you were laid low,
    no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9   Sheol beneath is stirred up
    to meet you when you come;
  it rouses the shades to greet you,
    all who were leaders of the earth;
  it raises from their thrones
    all who were kings of the nations.
10   All of them will answer
    and say to you:
  ‘You too have become as weak as we!
    You have become like us!’
11   Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
    the sound of your harps;
  maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
    and worms are your covers.
12   “How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Day Star, son of Dawn!
  How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!
13   You said in your heart,
    ‘I will ascend to heaven;
  above the stars of God
    I will set my throne on high;
  I will sit on the mount of assembly
    in the far reaches of the north;
14   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.’
15   But you are brought down to Sheol,
    to the far reaches of the pit.
16   Those who see you will stare at you
    and ponder over you:
  ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
    who shook kingdoms,
17   who made the world like a desert
    and overthrew its cities,
    who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18   All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
    each in his own tomb;
19   but you are cast out, away from your grave,
    like a loathed branch,
  clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
    who go down to the stones of the pit,
    like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20   You will not be joined with them in burial,
    because you have destroyed your land,
    you have slain your people.
  “May the offspring of evildoers
    nevermore be named!
21   Prepare slaughter for his sons
    because of the guilt of their fathers,
  lest they rise and possess the earth,
    and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.

24   The LORD of hosts has sworn:
  “As I have planned,
    so shall it be,
  and as I have purposed,
    so shall it stand,
25   that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
    and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
  and his yoke shall depart from them,
    and his burden from their shoulder.”
26   This is the purpose that is purposed
    concerning the whole earth,
  and this is the hand that is stretched out
    over all the nations.
27   For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
    and who will annul it?
  His hand is stretched out,
    and who will turn it back?

(ESV)

Mark 2:18–22 (Listen)

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

(ESV)