False Leaders

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Have you heard those radio quizzes in which a series of situations and events is described, and the contestants have to identify the year when they took place? It's always a bit of a shock when what sounds like ancient history turns out to be in your own childhood. But there speaks someone who still hasn't quite come to terms with the fact that he was born in one of the middle decades of the last century.

I even had a twinge of empathy with the central character of an exciting new film when I saw the trailer the other day. It's called 'Dinosaur'. It was only a twinge and it soon passed. But history certainly does come alive when it's your own lifetime that's being talked about! Anyway, we're going to play a round of that quiz in a moment. Two things, though, before we do.

First, would you please turn to the book of the prophet Isaiah. The passage that we've reached today is 56:9 – 57:13. It's the bit that's headed 'God's accusation against the wicked'. Secondly, let me just remind you of a couple of things that the apostle Peter has to say about the words of the prophets. In 2 Peter 1:21 he says:

prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So when Isaiah speaks as God's mouth-piece, that's no fiction. This passage that we're looking at is headed, back in 56:1, and then again in verse 4: 'This is what the Lord says…' And that's what it means. This is God speaking. And that's not all. These words were spoken well over two and a half thousand years ago. But listen to what Peter has to say in his first letter (in 1:12):

It was revealed to [the prophets] that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke [about salvation].

'You' is those who live after the death and resurrection of Jesus – and that includes us. So not only is Isaiah speaking God's words, but they're God's words for us. When you hear Isaiah, you're hearing God speaking to you. That's why the effort involved in understanding this is both necessary and worthwhile.

These are not dry, dull words from ancient and irrelevant times. These are the living words of the living God spoken for our benefit. Do you want to know what God has to say about your situation? Here it is. So let's get down to business. For ease of understanding I've divided our passage into four sections. The heading for each section tries to sum up what it's saying. So:


First, SELF-SERVING LEADERS WILL FACE THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD (56:9-12)

What's going on here? Well, now's your chance to have a go at that quiz. Listen to this description. When is this? Things are looking bleak for God's people who are seeking to be faithful. But some of the leaders of God's people are complacent. They bend over backwards to please those who are hostile to the word of God. They seem more interested in furthering their own careers than in faithfulness to the gospel. The same applies to some of the key political leaders of the nation.

And the leaders reflect the state of the population at large. The biblical faith to which they once claimed allegiance is being pushed to the margins of society. Those who want to uphold it and live by it find themselves under more and more pressure. There's widespread neglect of the bible, and people have turned away from the God of the bible in droves.

Other things take pride of place in their priorities. God is so far down the list that he's out of sight. They're cynical about the bible. They sneer at those who take it seriously. Above all it's their own desires and appetites that dominate their lives. That's lead to a society that's awash with sexual immorality. Children suffer terribly from the self-centred lifestyles of the adults.

Religion has become like a supermarket with a multitude of options. Anything goes. Anything is believable except the bible. People pick and mix bits of religions to suit themselves. They're never satisfied. They don't get what they want, and they tire of it all, but they just move on to the next thing. The one thing they wouldn't dream of doing is to go back to the bible, and back to the God of the bible. As far as they're concerned, he's as silent as the grave. He's irrelevant. He's dead.

But still there are some who know that's a lie. God's not dead. He's alive. And they listen to God's word; they believe what he says; they try to obey him; they struggle; they sin; they confess; they struggle on some more; but they don't give up. They don't even quite know how they manage to keep going. But they do.

When was that? It was Isaiah's day, seven centuries before Christ. It was also a future time that Isaiah knew would come, because God showed him. To me, it sounds like Europe in general and the UK in particular, 2000AD. So what does the Lord say to such a society and such a church? Self-serving leaders will face his judgement. Look at verses 10-11:

Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. 11They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain.,/i>

God paints a picture of the leaders of God's people. He uses three images. Leaders are like watchmen, guard dogs, and shepherds.

A watchman would be chosen by the people of a city to keep a look out for invading enemies. If they saw hostile troops approaching, they would blow the warning trumpet so the city could take defensive action. But Israel's leaders, the Lord says, are like blind watchmen. They're ignorant. They're useless. They're completely unqualified for the job they're supposed to do. They have no awareness of the danger that's upon them.

Dogs don't protect whole cities. Their role is more domestic. They guard households or families. When the thief comes, they're supposed to warn everyone by making a racket. These leaders were like dogs that were incapable of barking. They gave no protection at all. But why? It sounds like the real reason was simply that they were asleep. And they were asleep because they'd eaten themselves silly in a vain attempt to satisfy their greed.

Shepherds also have a protecting role. But their main task is to make sure the sheep have food and water. These shepherds weren't interested in caring for their flock. All they cared about was looking after number one.

Blind watchmen; sleeping guard dogs; shepherds who do nothing for the sheep: that's a devastating assessment of the leaders of God's people. And that would have applied to both political and religious leaders.

And do we do any better today? When the bible's teaching is neglected and rejected then we fall under the same condemnation. That applies to all those with influence and power in our society. It applies to government, local authorities, schools, the media, parents, bishops, leaders of local churches, leaders within local churches. This is what God thinks of unfaithful leaders, especially when God's word is there in front of their eyes for all to see, if only they want to see it. Above all, such leaders are self-indulgent and complacent. Look at 56:12:

"Come," each one cries, "let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.

It's party time as far as they're concerned. No danger. But the Lord has already invited others to the party. Back to verse 9:

Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!

They will have nobody but themselves to blame. It's not as if they weren't warned right from the start. Deuteronomy 28 has this stark message:

… if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees … Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

Do you have some leadership responsibility in the church, in your family, at work? It's no good just pointing the finger at others. Those of us who are in some way leaders need to realise how seriously God takes our role. The Lord wants watchmen who are actively on the look out; guard dogs that are alert; shepherds who feed the flock. We will give account. Self-serving leaders will face the judgement of God.


Secondly, SUFFERING BELIEVERS WILL FIND PEACE WITH GOD (57:1-12)

Inevitably when leadership fails and the word of God is ignored and flouted, those who are wanting to be faithful to God find themselves on the receiving end of hostility, hatred, pressure and persecution. That is as true today as it ever was. For instance, I read about a situation in Cuba that developed a few years ago. Evangelical churches in Cuba were under great pressure.

Pastor Orson Villa was arrested. Pastor Villa had had 2000 gathering regularly at his home. The authorities warned him to stop the meetings. He said to them "I cannot stop that which God began. You go ahead and do what you have to do."

His home was raided at dawn by several dozen police. He was jailed for nine months for failing to 'obey government orders'. In his absence, the church continued to grow. One of the Cuban evangelical pastors summed up their attitude like this: "They can interrogate me, they can put me in prison, they can even kill me, but they can never shut me up."

Such persecution often gets ratcheted up to a higher and higher pitch. Beyond a certain point, the very lives of believers are at risk. Believers start getting killed. That's what seems to be happening in the situation that Isaiah sees. Look at the beginning of chapter 57 – verses 1-2:

The righteous perish, and no-one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no-one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

Those are very challenging words. They challenge the complacency of those who are indifferent to the persecution of believers. "No one ponders it in his heart": they don't even give it a second thought, let alone seriously ask what the significance of it all is.

Thank God that in this country we've been spared the need to be ready to die for our faith for centuries – though we cannot safely assume that will always be so. But in other parts of the world things are very different. It's estimated that more Christians died for their faith in the twentieth century than in any other century in history so far. We dare not be unconcerned about what's going on in the lives of our brothers and sisters around the world.

But those verses challenge us in another way as well. They expose our real thoughts and feelings about eternal life. Because what they say is that in rotten and persecuting societies it is the believers who die who are better off than those who are left behind. They are spared any further pain. They have entered peace. They are at rest.

There are three different kinds of bed mentioned in this passage. The bed of laziness. The bed of lust. And the bed of peace, on which dead believers lie. The bed of peace is infinitely to be preferred to the other two.

And what is more, the death of a believer is not outside the sovereign control of God: "the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil". Who by? By the Lord.

The death of God's own Son at the hands of wicked men was under his control and he turned it to good, as this Lord's Supper reminds us so powerfully. The death of any believer is no less under his control, and ultimately no less part of his good purposes.

For the believer, death (however it happens) is the gateway to abundant and eternal life. Is that how we see it? Do we know the peace that that knowledge brings even into the struggles of this life? Where have we got to? First, self-serving leaders will face the judgement of God. Secondly, suffering believers will find peace with God. Those two themes are really repeated and developed in the rest of the passage. So:


Thirdly, ADULTEROUS IDOLATERS WILL BE EXPOSED BY GOD (57:3-13a)

Verses 3-13 present a grim picture not just of corrupt leaders but of the wider society in which they're embedded. The prophets don't pull their punches when it comes to describing and exposed the reality of sin. And the picture in these verses is first of God's people as the wicked sons of a prostitute (that's verses 3-5); then secondly as the prostitute herself. That's in verses 6-13. In those verses all the 'you's' change from plural 'you' to singular and feminine 'you', though you can't see that in the English. And one other grammatical point: in verse 3 the phrase 'adulterers and prostitutes' actually reads in the original 'an adulterer and a prostitute'.

So then, look at verses 3-4, and remember that this is God speaking to those who claim to be his people, but who are unfaithful:

But you – come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute! Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars? You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.

And so it goes on. Verse 8:

Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide…

The prostitute has a faithful husband, and that husband is the Lord. This is a people who are being both literally and spiritually adulterous. They have spurned the living God, the God of the Bible. Their religion is an idolatrous mish-mash of anything they can lay their hands on. Inevitably their spiritual adultery has lead them into actual sexual immorality, in which they glory. It has also lead them to destroy their children. Verse 5:

You burn with lust … you sacrifice your children…"

It's not a pretty picture. It's not one that we would want to dwell on. But it's here because it's real, and it's dangerous, and we need to heed the warning. Our own society fits these verses horribly well. By and large we've dropped the names of the gods. There's no more Molech and Baal. But the underlying adulterous idolatry is everywhere.

Maybe we think, "at least we don't sacrifice children to the gods any more". Apparently last year archaeologists working on Inca sites in South America uncovered the mummified bodies of three children sacrificed to Inca gods 500 years ago. Two girls and a boy were drugged, buried alive and left to die as part of a ritual. We don't do that in this country. No.

But this is the very week in which we've been hearing on the news about the systematic abuse of hundreds of children in care homes that should have been havens of love. And in 1998 in our society we killed 187,000 unborn children in England and Wales alone. About 97% of abortions in this country are for social reasons alone and not medical. At least we don't sacrifice children to the gods any more. Unless, that is, we've made ourselves into our own idols. What would Isaiah say to our society?

We need to heed the warning. And we need to understand that to reject the biblical gospel is to act towards Christ like a woman who leaves her faithful husband because she prefers a life of prostitution. The Lord says, verse 11:

Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have been false to me, and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me? I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you. When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.

It may seem as if God is silent and inactive. It may seem like that for a long time. But it won't be so for ever. The day will come when God will act in judgement. Adulterous idolaters will be exposed by God. What they are really like and what they've done will be made obvious to all.

Why does the Lord give us such strongly worded warnings? Because he loves us. Because he wants us to learn to be faithful now, before it's too late. Because he's given us a way out through the death and resurrection of his son, sent to save us from our impending fate. So there is a fourth and final point in this passage, almost hidden away at the end of verse 13. It's this:


Fourthly, THE FAITHFUL WILL RECEIVE THEIR INHERITANCE FROM GOD (57:13b)

Look at the second half of verse 13, as we finish:

But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.

For the faithful, the present may be very hard. But the future will be different. That's a promise. 'Inheriting the land' speaks of security, and a home, and provision for our needs. 'Possessing God's holy mountain' speaks of being accepted right into the presence of the Lord and being free to enjoy his company and share in his glory. That's the future for those who make the living God their refuge – who run to Christ for shelter from the storm.

Let's pray: Lord God, have mercy on us all. Have mercy on this nation. Have mercy on whatever nation we come from. Forgive our unfaithfulness. Teach us to heed your loving warnings. Make us faithful. Thank you for the peace that is to be found in you alone. Thank you that it reaches to all eternity. Thank you that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, your Son our Saviour.

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