›Isaiah 59:1-15
›Societal Breakdown
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
6 Their webs will not serve as clothing;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.
(Isaiah 59:1-8, ESV)
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
11 We all growl like bears;
we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
13 transgressing, and denying the LORD,
and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
14 Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
(Isaiah 59:9-15, ESV)
›Main Point
› These verses describe the situation with the people
› Their society collapses because of their own sinfulness
› They are truly blind, going their own way in the dark
› In rejecting God there is no hope of justice or salvation in their own way
Application Points
› Societal Breakdown
– Isaiah has been trying to show us the significance of following after God
– He has also shown us what happens when we reject God
– Today we see the effect of having a poor foundation for society
– Their roads are crooked, and justice and righteousness are far from them
– Who cares about these things?
– Let’s say someone does something to you or your family?
– What if the judge and jury declared the person to be innocent?
– Would we find this acceptable? Of course not!
– Another kind of injustice are when people of power get away with certain crimes
– Meanwhile those with less power receive harsher sentences
– We are rightly outraged when we see abuses of power
Application Points
› Societal Breakdown (2)
– Unfortunately we live in a world where these things do occur
– People who commit atrocious acts…and go free
– We see it when dictators live their entire lives oppressing their people…while their people starve
– When it comes to our own history we can’t say we’re significantly better
– Even within the Church there are evidences of oppression, violence, and deception
– Because the truth is that it isn’t one particular race, or nation, or belief which has caused all these problems
– We are the ones who are corrupted
– God making us in His image, and we the image breakers
Application Points
› Societal Breakdown (3)
– In our greed we have managed to take good things…and spin them so that they mean nothing
– Those who seek justice, righteousness, and truth are ostracized
– The world hates such people, because it hates what is good
– We see society crumbling around us today because of these things
– The ancients were not better or worse
– That is the problem…we are no different
– We notice something in Isaiah today
– We are blind on our own accord
– The reason why we fail to create a better world on our own…because when we begin we are already lost
Application Points
› Societal Breakdown (4)
– That is the first thing we must embrace
– This is a human problem of sinfulness, and we are all part of the process, we are all part of the problem
– All humans are on equal ground when it comes to our fallenness
– All equally willing to turn away from justice, righteousness, and truth
– The people in today’s text seem to understand this to be the case
– If we do not join those in the time of Isaiah and see this…then there will be no possible way forward
– We will continue to believe that all we do is good, even though it is evil
Application Points
› Societal Breakdown (5)
– Societies which do not seek justice, do not seek righteousness, do not seek truth, are societies which crumble
– There is no hope for us if we only seek our own way
– We must end with this negative statement
– There is only death on our own
– The farther we get away from the source of all good things, the farther we get from goodness itself
– Pray that God would not only open our eyes, but give us eyes to see
– There is no other way to end this societal breakdown apart from God’s grace
Application Points
› The Gospel of Christ
– Origins
– Fall
– Redemption
– Glorification
