December 17, 2009

  • Isaiah 10 by Pastor Don Moore

    We began by reading Isaiah 9:21 Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

    Isaiah 10:1 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed

    Evil writes the prescription of evil in a decree that turns out evil. There is no vision of God, and the only end result with no vision of God is disaster.  Consider Haman – who decreed the death of the Jews and Mordecai – Haman and his sons died on the very gallows he had built to take Mordecai’s life, the Jews prospered and their enemies died. 

    Isaiah 10:2-4 To rob the needy of justice, and to take what is right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. What will you do in the day of punishment, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain.” 
    For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still    .

    Even though there is a mess, HIS HAND IS STRETCHED OUT STILL. God repeats this line several times in these passages and it is comforting to know that His hand is stretched out to us. This sentence is also found in Isaiah 9:12, 17, and 21.  As well as here in Isaiah 10:4.  When God repeats Himself He is serious about what He says.

    Isaiah 10:5-7 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation,  and against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.

    In verse 7 it says that “nor does his heart think so.”  Don’t trust your feelings, they are not the facts of our faith. If you are led by your feelings you will be miserable. Your expectations are the cause of your sorrow, you can’t live by your expectations and hope. You need to live in the moment and accept whatever. Do not judge and don’t have a critical spirit. If you judge, you make things tougher – if you think to your self, “If they loved me they would….”  Or “If they were REALLY a Christian they would….” Christians are all at a different level of development and not all will act the way you think they should act.

    2 Chronicles 30:18-19 For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.”

    If we judge ourselves, and determine what we will do, God will deal accordingly.

    The devil will use the same stuff against us until we beat it. Pastor Don shared about a drummer who came to a gathering, stood in the doorway but did not enter the room, turned and left.  When questioned about it later the drummer told Pastor Don that all his life he was teased and rejected, and he doesn’t enter situations like that because he knows that he will be teased and rejected.  This is in opposition to another person who came and held up his hands, entered the party, and said, “I am here!”  The drummer came expecting to be rejected, turned around and assumed that no one would want him at the gathering.

    Pastor Don told us that we must do something about the inner child of the past.

    Pastor Don acts as the statesman, but there is the Little Donnie Moore, who does not feel the need to light up the room with his pulpit personality. But as statesman if he is at a meeting and people are speaking in error, he has to speak up. Even though the Little Donnie Moore would rather sit quietly.

    THE WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE HAS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED BY WHAT GOD WANTS ACCOMPLISHED. Speak up or shut up for the Kingdom’s sake.

    Where is your heart? Get out of your head and where you were raised, and get into your heart and do the Kingdom work.

    Heart stuff – The Church is the hospital for sinners, not the hotel for saints. Hezekiah was healed and went back to the heart issue. He made a mistake and showed all the gold and silver of the Kingdom, and because of that error, the wealth of the Temple was removed from Israel.

    Isaiah 10:7-9 Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations. For he says, ‘Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?’

    God is comparing nations in Assyria to places in Canaan land.

    Isaiah 10:10-12 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?’”  Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

    The vessel that God will use to punish the people will rise up in arrogance and pride. God will punish those who punish Israel. Nebuchadnezzar brags one day, “Look how great I am.” God caused insanity to come to him and caused him to eat grass and live like a wild man for seven years until he came to his senses. God is just, and God is in control.

    America is making that same mistake, of not giving God the glory, and demise is upon us.

    Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.

    Isaiah 10:13 For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent; also I have removed the boundaries of the people, and have robbed their treasuries; so I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

    They say this, but this is not God’s truth.

    Isaiah 10:14 My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; and there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

    This is what the antichrist will rise up and say.

    Isaiah 10:15 Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!

    Tools are controlled by the Master, they do not operate on their own. Pastor Don told us that the rod was a piece of wood 1×3 inches, and when a person was beaten by the rods, the rod was designed to crush and break bones.

    Isaiah 10:16 Therefore the Lord, the Lord