“Holiness – It’s a Matter of Character and Lifestyle”
Isaiah 33: 1-16
Our final “woe” in the series of woes that began in chapter 28. Yet, this final woe is addressed to someone different. Instead of addressing the people of Israel, Isaiah is addressing the enemy of Jerusalem, assumedly, Assyria. Today’s Scripture can be divided into two parts:
The first part, verses 1-6, is the woe itself, along with an appeal to God, based on His character and power The second part, verses 7-16, begins with a picture of hopelessness, and ends with a promise by God to take action
Let’s look at the first part, verses 1-6. In verse 2, Isaiah talks to the Lord, asking for graciousness and revealing that they have been “waiting,” the NIV translates it “longing,” for Him. Basically, the Israelites have come to the realization that all of the hope they have placed in the human resources has failed them.
Egypt has not worked out to the saving country they thought it would be. Thus, they have stopped trusting in other nations to deliver them. Since they have nowhere else to turn, they return to God.
How often do we find ourselves doing the same thing? How often do we either try to work out difficult things on our own, or with human resources, and then when “all else fails” we turn to God.
I want to highlight verse 6,
He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
He, God, will be the sure foundation of your times.
What is a foundation?
It is the very thing you place your house on, your existence on, and if your life is placed upon God, your days will be stable and secure.
But then Isaiah puts this requirement in at the end of this statement that many of us often ignore, he writes
the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
Let’s face it, the Israelites had lost their “fear of the Lord.”
That is why they needed Isaiah to put the “fear of the Lord” back in them.
Isaiah calls this “fear” – “the key to this treasure.”
It was like the Israelites had the ability to obtain salvation, wisdom and knowledge, the treasures they were seeking,
all along.
They had just set it aside and were seeking other things. Sound familiar?
The second part of today’s Scripture, first describes our desperate need for deliverance, by painting a picture of hopelessness. Verses 7-9 actually refer to what had happened in 2 Kings 18:13-16, when Sennacherib accepted Hezekiah’s payment to break off his attack on Judah and then failed to do so. The Israelites had nowhere else to turn. The military had failed, diplomacy had failed, the Israelites had no more bargaining chips in which to negotiate. They were left to whatever attack was about to happen. The brave men were no longer brave, the roads were empty. All they could do was wait to be attacked. Isaiah puts the situation in a different context in verse 9. Here he compares it to a drought. There is no relief in sight, and even the most fertile areas, they could almost always rely on having some rainfall, had dead leaves falling from the trees.
Yet, out of this barrenness, Isaiah reminds us that there is hope.
The nations demonstrate their mightiness and power only to have it visited back on themselves in the end.
God will reveal that He alone should be exalted.
History proves what Isaiah proclaimed.
Assyria went about the ancient world with its imperial power only to have its own “peoples” v. 12, consumed less than one hundred years later.
In verse 13, Isaiah reminds the Israelites that Assyria and all of the other mighty nations of the earth were not the main characters in their lives, the Lord was! Then check out the response of the Israelites in verse 14.
The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
This is where they actually get it.
They have come to the end of their own attempts at fixing things and when they look to the Lord, they recognize their true reality. They were sinners, and they were terrified. They recognize their inability to dwell with the Almighty. What could they do?
Isaiah reveals what is needed in the following verses. Isaiah reminds them that it was not God’s mystical essence that was separating Him from His people, it was His character. Isaiah goes on in verses 15 and 16, explaining that what was needed was a change in character on their part. Verse 15 gives the general description of what behavior God was seeking, Eugene Peterson puts it this way in The Message,
The answer’s simple:
Live right,
speak the truth,
despise exploitation,
refuse bribes,
reject violence,
avoid evil amusements.
When you think about what God is seeking in this list, you will realize the behaviors are primarily relational. Those who survive the fire, will be the ones who, consider others in the things they do, and value them, just as God does. And what will be their result? Again, from The Message,
This is how you raise your standard of living!
A safe and stable way to live.
A nourishing, satisfying way to live.
It’s not just about keeping out of hell,
it’s about living a holy life, right here, right now, and reaping the benefits, right here, right now.
So how does this character of holiness fit into right here, right now?
The final verse of today’s Scripture,
Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them.
Here Isaiah addresses the fundamental issues of the book of his book and of the human race…
How do I get my basic needs met?
Let me remind you what your basic needs really are, because for many of us in America, we have so much more, we have forgotten. The basic needs of humans are security, basic physical needs, and comfort and pleasure.
The question as to who supplies these needs has been the age old question, which began in the Garden of Eden. Who supplies my needs? And like the Garden of Eden, often the answer is, “Myself; who else?”
And the method in which our needs are supplied is often, “By my own doing, by managing and working it out in the environment in which I find myself.”
The Bible has a different answer.
Jesus, himself put it this way, in Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
The significance of this statement is that God supplies all of our needs, as a gift. Our needs are met as a by-product, rather than as a direct result.
Jesus was telling us that if we do one thing, seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and this other thing, all these things will be given to you, will happen, as well.
You don’t get your needs met or supplied because of your efforts. Rather, your needs get met, for free, to those who demonstrate their allegiance to God’s rule.
This is the message Isaiah was giving to the Israelites and to us. Stop trying to work out things for yourselves. Stop making deals with Egypt or Assyria, stop looking to others to protect you, or save you. Leave those concerns in God’s hands and put your focus on becoming what God wants you to be. When we focus on having the character of God, we will be amazed at how God supplies our needs more abundantly than we could have imagined.
One of the reasons many of us don’t want to let go and let God is because we want to be the ones responsible for what happens. When we let God take care of things, we may not be involved in the process. Things may not go exactly the way we think or want and so we step in, “to fix things.”
Somehow we think that if we are not in charge, we will not be involved. This is not necessarily the case.
What Isaiah was trying to get across and what we should really be focusing on is….
the maintenance of our relationship with God.
Is my relationship with God primary, or is God, simply another means for me to try to manipulate as I attempt to take care of myself?
If the former is true, you are taken care of, if the latter is true, no matter how much you accumulate, you will never have enough.
Isaiah is quite clear, in verses 14-16, that being a member of God’s kingdom is a matter of how you behave, and God is to be our example. Don’t misunderstand me, in no way are you given a place in heaven because you live like God. No way. Our place in heaven is given when we accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Just as the Israelites were given freedom from Egypt, God gives us a place because Jesus Christ died in our place.
But once we are forgiven, how are we to act? We have been reading how the Israelites thought they could obey the commandments on their own strength, and they failed at it miserably, even though in Leviticus 11:44-45 God told them The Message (MSG)
“Make yourselves holy for I am holy. Don’t make yourselves ritually unclean by any creature that crawls on the ground. I am God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Be holy because I am holy.
Peter puts it this way in the New Testament,
1 Peter 1:15-16 The Message (MSG) So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
The definition of holiness here is not a matter of divine essence, where you are expected to be divine, perfect, holy, but it is a matter of character and lifestyle.
Just as it is written in Psalm 15, ritual cleanliness has nothing to do with access to the Holy Place, where sacrifices were given and prayers offered. Check it out, it’s a matter of behavior, Psalm 15
God, who gets invited
to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
“Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.
“Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.
“Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
The reality is,
we can’t do this on our own.
God has not only given us eternal life, He has also given us His Spirit and because of this, we have a helper, someone we can call on, to assist us, to live like God.
Romans 8:13-14 (9-39)
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.
It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance!
We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.
We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name.
After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?
How can we lose?
Let’s pray.
