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LORD, HOW LONG?

GOD DESTROYS THE DISOBEDIENT BUT PRESERVES A REMNANT.

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LORD, HOW LONG? GOD DESTROYS THE DISOBEDIENT BUT PRESERVES A REMNANT. Isaiah 6:6-13 (NASB) 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" 9 He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' 10 " Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed." 11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, 12 "The LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 "Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The Holy Seed is its stump." INTRODUCTION Today we are going to consider verses 11 to 13, having already seen from the previous verses that God revealed to Isaiah the fact that He has work to be done, and in an expression of true worship Isaiah gave himself to do the work. He was to take a message to Gods people. God gave Isaiah his job, the nature of which indicated that his work was part of Gods broader programme in which He promotes His glory. Isaiah understood the message and his job. He understood that this sovereign, glorious and holy King who is the true and living God, the Lord of host, was not sending him with a message to this people by which to open their eyes and ears and transform their minds, so that they would return to Him and serve Him truthfully and faithfully, but that he was being sent so that they would be confirmed in their darkness, their stubbornness, their ignorance and their hardness of heart against God.

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Isaiah understood that his job was not one by which the people would be enlightened when they heard Gods word, so that they would be redeemed and be reconciled to God, and, having received that revelation from God, he again responded. His previous responses were in keeping with true worship and so is this one. He asks the question, How long Lord? ISAIAHS QUESTION This is the kind of question that Gods messengers who understood their place and their role in Gods service asked. The question shows that Isaiah understood that it is God who, in sovereignty, is working according to His programme, accomplishing His purposes. His question also shows that he was burdened for the people and wanted their good. We too, in our worship to God, may ask questions but we must ask the correct ones. Isaiahs desire was for Gods people to repent and be restored to Him, which is the normal purpose for the preaching of the Gospel. But God reveals to Isaiah that on this occasion this is not what the preaching of His word would accomplish. As hard as it may be for us, we must accept that sometimes God sends His Gospel as a means of hardening hearts rather than softening them. The apostle Paul, in the time of the New Testament, had a burden for the good of the people who were called by Gods name, just as Isaiah had in his time. He expresses this in Romans chapter 9 where he says: 1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. He also accepted the fact that Gods word to those same people may harden them in their rebellion and as a result he taught that it is not in the place of anybody to ask God Why? He goes on to say in verse 13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, " FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE

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PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Recognizing that this was all about God and His glory and that the sovereign God could rise up in judgment against His people at any time, Isaiah did not ask Why? Gods messengers who are submissive to Him do not ever ask God why. It is never our place to ask God why. That is not an expression of true worship. Like Isaiah we may ask how long or how much, but it is never our place to ask why. GOD ANSWERS ISAIAH Gods answer to Isaiahs question is "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, 12 "The LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Isaiah was to continue preaching Gods message to His people until God accomplished the punishment that He had determined. Based on what God said, it is clear that He had no intention of relenting. GODS WRATH This was Gods ultimate punishment of His people; removing them from the land that was promised and had been given to them as their own dwelling place. How do we know that this was Gods ultimate punishment? We know it because this is what God had revealed to Moses many years before and he had told this to the people. God had said that if they would not obey and serve Him, He would bring plagues, famine and sicknesses upon them, and if they continued in their rebellion He would bring the sword of their enemies upon them until they are driven from the land. This is how it is expressed to us in Deut 28:58-66 (NASB). Here Moses is speaking to the people and warning them of what would happen if they do not serve God. 58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

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60 He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed. 62 Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64 Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. Isaiah would have known this because he knew the scriptures. GODS MERCY But God, whilst acting in wrath always remembers mercy and His way of expressing this is by preserving a remnant. He indicates to Isaiah that He would do this in this case also, for He says at the end of the passage that we are considering, Isaiah 6 in verse 13 "Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The Holy Seed is its stump." The tenth portion is the remnant of the people that God would preserve. This would be the few who were committed to Him, who did not serve idols, who endeavored to keep His law and lived for His glory; worshipping Him with their lives. God destroys the rebellious but preserves the faithful. To this remnant, the preaching of Gods word did not have a hardening effect upon them; rather, it brought about obedience, submission, commitment to God, reliance and dependence on Him. To them His word was an aroma of life whereas to the rebellious it was an aroma of death. The remnant would be made pure by burning. It is like putting the precious metal in the fire to burn out all the impurities so that at the end it would become pure and perfect. The same fire that was used to destroy the rebellious was used to purify the faithful, because it is the same word that was preached to both of them.

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Just as Isaiah was made pure with the burning coal applied to him by the burning one, so to the remnant, of which he would be one, would be subject to burning in order to be purged of their sins, cleansed, forgiven, atoned for and made fit to be in Gods presence and to worship Him. This must be encouraging to us and we must always look for this at the end of Gods expression and application of His wrath. Gods final word is never one of wrath but one of mercy. The source of the remnant, of the few that are preserved, forgiven and restored is the Holy Seed, who is Jesus Christ the Lord. We read this in Eph 1:3-14 (NASB) for example. Verse 3 says: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. APPLICATION May God cause His word, the message of His Gospel, to be to all of us a life giving message. May it be to all of us a message that draws us to God and not one that hardens our hearts against Him. As you have heard the Gospel preached, I call upon you in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit to repent of your sins.

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Acknowledge that you have sinned against Him and that the consequences of this are that you are dead in your trespasses and sins, that you are separated from Him now and that yours would be your eternal death if you remain in and die in you sins. Believe that God in His mercy sent Jesus Christ to die in your place to pay the price for your sins and that He has died in your place. Confess Him as Lord, as your Lord and your Saviour; for there is salvation in no other, and commit yourself to serving Him for as long as you shall live on this earth. Do not spurn the mercy of God. Embrace it with open arms and an open and trusting heart and you shall live. May God help you to do that, for your good and for His glory.