40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 15:5-17:3 (Episode 459)

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Moab is in trouble and God takes no pleasure in its destruction. Lions are waiting for you, so send a Lamb to Zion. And in three years there will be nothing more than a remnant. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Celebrate 2,000 Episodes of Christian History Almanac! The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 podcast, network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast and check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing, academies, events, articles, videos, I mean all this stuff. Check all that out, and while you're checking it out, while you're just taking in all of this material, make sure you go to the donate page, and you can become a contributor to help keep all that stuff free. You can do that by giving a one-time gift, making a reoccurring gift. And if you're one of the people that do that, thank you very much for doing it. Chad, we're here in Isaiah chapter 15.

This is an oracle concerning Moab. We got through the first four verses, and this one's a little bit weird because it seems that bad things are going to be happening to Moab and that God is bummed out about it. So you almost have this language. But, you know, like when Jesus does the seven woes in Matthew 23, and he does this, he's just ripping up the Pharisees left. I mean, it's just brutal.

It's just a savage takedown. And at the very end of that, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how long I would have desired to gather you under my wings. The hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. And he moves from this sort of like declaration of like just ferocious judgment to this sort of heartbrokenness. I mean, the lament over Jerusalem isn't done in anger, but in heartbreak. And you have some of that going on here, where it's like, hey, this is bad news, and I'm kind of upset about it.

Yeah, well, I think it puts into perspective that God's judgment is not spoken out of some sort of vindictiveness, that he's just real angry and wants to let them know, you know, he's got the big stick. He's about to bash their brains in just because, eh, that's just what God does. Now, everything that he's speaking here is spoken out of a, yes, concern for truth and justice, but also a genuine love, you know, that what he really wants is for them to repent, for them to turn to him, for them to be, as he'll say in, I don't know, the next chapter or something like that. He wants him to be brought under the care of the promises he's given to the Davidic dynasty. So, yeah, as we'll see in a second, when his heart cries out, this is, I mean, talk about a clear window into the heart of God,

a heart that laments while at the same time pronouncing a judgment. I mean, I think on the human level, we've all experienced this. You know, we have to tell someone something that is a really hard thing to say, somebody we actually care about, you know. And it truly breaks our heart to say that to them. We are lamenting, but at the same time, it has to be said, because if we don't do it, then not doing it would not be a sign of love. So just take that human experience we all have and translate it into what God has to do as well.

Yeah. So, all right. So just kind of recap for those who maybe it's been a few days since you heard the first part of this. We've got a lot of places, Ar, Kir, Dabon, Nebo, Heshpon. And don't worry about all of those. These are various places that are in Moab.

Reminder that Moab is on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. So that's the trans-Jordan area that we're talking about. So after he's spoken these first four verses, he goes on to say, verse five, my heart cries out for Moab. Her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-Shelishiah, for at the ascent of Luhith, they go up weeping on the road to Huronayim. They raise a cry of destruction.

The waters of Nimrim are desolation. The grass is withered. The vegetation fails. The greenery is no more so stop there for a second so this is more place names uh some of the some of these we've heard of uh like zoar we've heard about that all the way back in like genesis you hear about the five cities on the plain so zoar is mentioned there and aglath uh shalishia is just one that we we haven't heard about it's going to be mentioned elsewhere in scripture but means something like three-year-old heifer or something like that but all these are just place names that are, it would have been known at the time, it certainly would have been known to the Moabites, probably got known to all the Israelites as well, in which he is concretizing exactly what's going

to happen. So you know that place, well, that ascent of Luhith, they're going to be weeping there. And you know that place called Huronayim, well, they're going to be on that road and raising a cry of destruction. I mean, these are weird sounding names to us, but you know, if you and I were talking about towns in Arkansas or towns in Texas and just started listing them off, you'd be like oh yeah of course i know i don't need a map i know exactly where those are same thing same thing happening here and i mean the the overall tenor of this entire section is basically where there once was life there's death where there's once was greenery now there's desolation it's because of everything that's about to about to befall them then he goes on from in seven to say

therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the brook of the willows this is kind of the image of fugitives refugees which of course are those who suffer the most during war they've gathered up everything they put you know everything they can carry just imagine this imagine somebody comes running to your house knocks on the door and says hey you got just a few minutes to get out of here before the enemy shows up and they're going to either kill you or take you into captivity or rape your wives. They're going to burn your house down. So grab what you can and get out. That's kind of the image here. You grab what you can and then you take off. Why? For a cry has gone up around the land of Moab. Her wailing reaches to

Eglium. Her wailing reaches to Be'er Elim. For the waters of Dibbon are full of blood. For I will bring upon Dabon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape for the remnant of the land. So I don't know, there's, I don't know, there's really much else that I have to say about this. You get the general message that everywhere they look, there is violence, there's threat, there's cries, they're going to go up. And all of this, of course, is because of the coming Assyrian invasion, which is going to decimate, not just Moab, of course, but this entire region of Israel and then around Israel. Yeah, it sounds pretty horrific, and you get this language of, like, you should get all

your stuff and escape, even though there's nowhere to escape to, right? It's not going to really result in your salvation or anything. And it is weird because it is Moab. This is something that you might expect to hear about, I don't know, like Jerusalem or some other place. I don't know if this is exactly right, but if you think about what is God ultimately talking about so far through this? that he's going to use these other powers, he's going to kind of take his hand off, let them do the evil thing that's in their heart, which is invade Israel, which, you know, they don't really care that much about Israel.

Israel is not any bigger deal than anything else to them, but it's one of the things that is in their way, right? So they might as well gobble that up. And God's going to let him do it because the people have rejected him, the people have spurned him. So he is no longer going to hold back the tide of these foreign powers. and it could be that sort of Moab or like surrounding areas of Israel are sort of beneficiaries of God protecting Israel.

So when God is holding back the tide, well, maybe there's this place he doesn't want to get to, but kind of everything around there benefits from this as well, right? Well, it's not necessarily because of the sin of Moab. who are no doubt sinners and stuff, but it's the sin of his people, their idolatry, that's going to make him remove his hand, and Moab is going to be swept up in this too. And God feels that that is unfortunate, right?

So like, hey, this is, there's almost a, again, I don't want to say that Moab is some innocent place, but there is a version of collateral damage that seems like that may happen here. Yeah, I think so, and it's kind of both sides, right? Israel can, because of their sin, bring collateral damage to their neighbors, and at the same time, they can also bring, you might, maybe collateral blessing isn't the best word, but that's the goal, you know, you want to, like God says to Abraham, he says it to Jacob as well, that in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed, and of course included

in that would be the Moabites and the Edomites and other surrounding nations. So that's the goal, Israel, to be a blessing to these nations, and yet what's happening Is there actually, because of their rebellion, they're bringing the enemy onto the soil of their neighbors, neighbors as well. Yeah. One little detail I'll mention here that's kind of fun. So at the very end of that, he says, a lion for those of Moab who escape for the remnant of the land. So meaning that, you know, as if it's not bad enough, when you're running away, you got to worry about lions too. It's like, oh, great.

you know well this is kind of what i meant like where it's like what else is gonna go wrong bad things are happening grab all your stuff and get out of your house okay there's gonna be lions out there by the way and just so you know yeah so what's kind of uh what's interesting is that in a couple of places there's like first chronicles 11 22 there's mention of the uh the aerials of moab that's a-r-i-e-l-s and that means the lions of moab but it's used as like a uh it's like a military nickname for their elite warriors so yeah call the lions of moab meaning you know the the special forces we we might say so the the irony here is that oh you've got special forces You have the lion-like soldiers in Moab, and yet in this case, those refugees of Moab who are fleeing, they have to worry about real lions because they're lion-like.

They're aerials who are their warriors. Well, either they are no more, or as I think we heard last time, they're trembling, or maybe that was another country. But either way, they're not there to help the people because they're busy being defeated or fighting the Assyrians. all right so we're entering into a new chapter uh but it i mean it's not much of a not much of a change in tone this is still a continuation of the oracle concerning moab we're just shifting into into chapter 16 so here we uh read beginning with verse one send the lamb to the ruler of the land from selah that could be petra by the way uh i think we're all familiar with with petra that rock fortress that's uh featured in indiana jones uh that rock that that rock band that was featured

heavily in the late 80s that was that was the first christian rock band i ever listened to it's petra yeah petra means rock that was the name i think that was the name of the first petra album was just petra means rock how is that right it's too great yeah yeah when i was was i in high school still yeah i'm pretty sure i was like a senior in high school when i was introduced to petra by by a friend of mine so i rocked to several petra albums back in the back of the day it's appropriately named album and no lies detected in petra means rock yes this is true passes the the fact check there so that could be uh what this selah s-e-l-a is referring to because it does mean does mean rock and it's kind of in that general vicinity of where

the ancient city of petra is located but anyway send the lamb to the ruler send the lamb to the ruler of the land from from selah by way of the desert to the mount of the daughter of zion all right so what seems to be happening here is that the moabites are going to take this tribute which is a lamb and we know from some other context uh in particular from second kings three that the Moabite tribute was lambs. So maybe there's a lot of shepherding going on in the area of Moab. So they're going to get this lamb,

probably a representative tribute, a promise of more to come. So grab a lamb and send this tribute from Selah by way of the desert. Where? Well, to the people of Jerusalem, to the Mount of the Daughter of Zion.

So basically the Moabites are going to be looking to to jerusalem to judah for for protection saying hey you know we got a lamb here uh we can bring a lot more if you'll if you'll take us in and then it goes on in verse two to say like fleeing birds like a scattered nest so are the daughters of moab at the fords of the arnon the fords of the arnon i i got interested in this i think this was a week or two ago i went on google earth just to check out the Fords of the Arnon, which is a pretty cool thing to do because the Fords of the Arnon is where the Arnon flows into the Dead Sea. And if you get on Google Earth and you're following it along,

man, the landscape just plummets there. So the Arnon River Canyon is the deepest gorge in modern Jordan and enters the Dead Sea at like 1,350 feet below sea level. And if you're like following along, you can see how people, you know, if they're fleeing, yeah, they make it, they're doing okay. They're up and down. Then they get to this Arnon, the forge of the Arnon. It's like, how in the world are you going to get down there?

And if you do get down there, how in the world are you going to get out? Yeah. So it's like one of these, we, you know, not just we, me. yeah I hear this before and I think yeah yeah the forward to the Arnon well imagine like okay you're going along you're running away and you see this massive cliff drop

you got to get across that you got to cross the river and you got to go way back up in order to get away from the enemy and you're among the daughters of Moab when this is going on so that's the image that's used here isn't it kind of interesting that

these Moabites they need to escape some lions so they need to bring a lamb to zion yes it is that is a that's a pretty deep irony that's going on yes i mean i it is interesting that you know you have a chapter right there but like one chapter ends with lions and the next chapter starts with uh bring that lamb to zion if you're gonna if you're gonna have anything good happen yeah that's perfect perfect so what seems to be going on here and and this is a bit of speculation because this is all kind of packed tight here but uh they're they're sending a tribute here's a description of what they're what's happening to them they're like birds who are scattered and then verse three which says

give counsel grant justice make your shade like night at the height of noon shelter the outcast do not reveal the fugitive this seems to be like the speech that these envoys are going to be given at jerusalem like hey we need we need some counsel we got to have justice uh give us some shade because like we're living at the height of noon the the heat of the assyrians is pressing down upon us and so shelter us and don't don't reveal that we're hiding among you the refugitives so that's verse three verse four has the tone of isaiah as it were giving counsel to the leaders of jerusalem saying okay when this happens here's what i think you should do let the outcast and moab sojourn among you be a shelter to them from the destroyer when the oppressor is no more and

destruction has ceased and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land so once the Assyrian threat is over what's going to happen verse 5 continues this well then a throne will be established in steadfast love and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness I love how Isaiah can go from describing what appears to be an imminent threat to the Moabites listen the Assyrians are coming. They're going to decimate your land. Your people are going to run away. They got to worry about lions. Their women are like fleeing birds. They're going to come. They're going to, they're going to seek refuge among the people of Jerusalem. All this is like right on the horizon. And then

he'll say, you know what? Bring him in because guess what's going to happen? There's going to be a Davidic throne established in faithfulness. And the one who sits on that throne is going to come from the line of David. And what's it going to be characterized by? Justice and righteousness and steadfast love. So he jumps right to the coming of the Messiah saying, hey, welcome the Moabites, right? Bring them in. The more the merrier. The promise of the Messiah isn't just for the people of Israel, of course. It's for the Moabites and the Edomites and the Samaritans and everybody else as well. So kind of a cool switch that he does there in verse 5.

Yeah, and one of the weird things about this is what it goes to next, because it seems like, all right, good. So the Moabites are going to flee, and then it seems like Isaiah's like, hey, go ahead and take them in. That'd be the right thing to do. And you get this nice promise about a throne being established. Seems like things are good, and you're like, all right, So maybe this works out well for everyone.

And in verse 6, he's like, yeah, you know about the pride of these Moabites. And you're like, wait, what? What is that? What is that about? Yeah. Yeah, it's almost like Isaiah says, here's what you should do, and here's why you should do it. But we all know what's going to happen.

Because we all know these Moabites, right? What are they characterized by? That's what verse 6 describes. We've all heard of what? the pride of moab how proud he is of his arrogance his pride his insolence his idle boasting he is not in his idle boasting he is not right so let's talk isaiah is he's like got his jerusalem the source open in front of him he looks up okay here's pride what else can i say what are some synonyms of pride and uh so i had to i had to have a little fun here with uh with this in the hebrew

because so all four adjectives that are translated there of pride proud arrogance pride they all begin with the same letter in hebrew which is the equivalent of our g and they all have the same root which means to be high so it'd be something like this if i was trying to rent if i was you know in the chadberg translation trying to capture the hebrew here it'd be something like this we have heard of the haughtiness of moab his hauteur of his hubris and high-handedness it's my attempt to capture this so you got four h's just like four g's and in hebrew but i mean the the message is pretty clear this these this moab well they got they got a big problem and it all has to do with how big their head has become so what's going to happen well verse

7 says therefore let Moab wail for Moab let everyone wail mourn utterly stricken for the raisin cakes of Kir Haraseth those raisin cakes

yeah that's a good dessert back then the raisin cake seems to be a delicacy from what I was able to read so the delicacies we might say of Kir Haraseth yeah so I mean so is the way to read this that he says hey take these moabites in but uh their land's not going to really be spared so

you have this sort of uh moab whales for moab that all whatever it is that they're proud of over there like that's all going to be removed and laid to waste but that doesn't stop you from taking in the sojourner yeah i think so i mean if if anyone shows up we'll bring them in for sure Don't turn them away. Bring in the Moabites and let them basically sit under the promises that God has given to David. But do know at the same time that Moab is proud. Proud of, well, some of the things we're going to hear about in just a second. You know, their fertile land where they have vineyards and no doubt their flocks and whatever possessions that they have.

I mean, I suppose every nation has its own pride. I mean, of course, except America, because you never hear about pride associated with America at all, right? The most humble nation on earth. We don't think we're the best. No. I mean, perish the thought that America thinks it's the best. But, I mean, speaking as American, of course, we all know about national pride. And I doubt, I mean, I could be wrong here, but I doubt there's a nation in the world that isn't proud of its nation for something.

you know, legitimately or illegitimately. And Moab was no different. Israel was no different. Judah was no different. Egypt was no different. It's been a constant issue throughout the ages. So what's going to happen? Well, he's going to pick it up here with verse 8 to describe more of the destruction that's going to come.

And this is agriculturally centered. Heard a lot about the people, what they're suffering. So he's going to focus here on what this destruction is going to look like in terms of some of the agriculture. For the fields of Heshbon languish. The vine of Sivma, so it's going to languish too. The lords of the nations have struck down its branches.

So evidently this was some sort of fertile country where you had a lot of vineyards. So these branches, they reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert. It shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea. So some hyperbole going on there, We're just talking about how big and how fruitful these vineyards are. Well, they're going to be cut down.

They're going to be destroyed. Then verse 9 picks up with where we started off with divine limitation. Because God says in verse 9, Therefore I, I, this is God speaking. This is not Isaiah speaking, but God speaking. Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibma. I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Eliela, for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased,

and joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field. And in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised, no treader treads out wine in the presses. I put an end to the shouting. Therefore my, again this is God still speaking, therefore my inner parts moan like a liar from moab and my inmost self for cure haraseth so once more we have uh god's response to this he's not he's not dancing around joyful gleeful over the destruction of the moabites quite the opposite i don't know how we would express this

in in english but when it says my inner parts moan like a liar it's like my in hebrew it's something like my intestines are sighing from moab like a harp the only thing i could think of was like we talk about maybe not anymore but like you know plucking someone's heartstrings but that's a positive image i don't know what the negative image would be in english but that's that's the idea that in the innermost being of god you have this uh mournful music arising from uh from the core of his being he's moaning with this liar-like lamentation from moab his inmost self for for curious horuseth because of the destruction coming it was in the old testament like the we we think that uh and you know you have some stuff like love the lord your god with all your heart and

your life okay um and that doesn't sound weird to us at all because that's the kind of language we use like we're like you know uh the heart is the the seat of the emotions uh for us uh it's not really that way in the old testament even though you have references like that uh it's in the old testament it's like the bowels yeah which yes it is you know it's a little bit a little bit different uh like that that doesn't seem as nice i mean but you know that's just because we've you know elevated the heart but i mean the heart is just a big blood pumping muscle too and there's all it's all the same but oh yeah so with here when you're just like when you're really moved uh you're this is uh yeah this talks to this is talking about your guts man and your

bowels um yeah or your kidneys your kidneys is another image they use for that yeah yeah something like in you like in that uh stomach region it's more it's more stomach than chest it seems than in the Old Testament but one of the things that when I read stuff like this where God's so upset about this and he's talking about

oh man there was these vineyards and they were so awesome and there was I used to have all these harvest parties and there was all this rejoicing when it came time to do all this stuff and you would make all this wine and you'd be stomping it out in the wine press

and everyone would be shouting and stuff What you see by God being so upset about all that stuff stopping is how much joy God takes in those things. And so God really likes his creation, and so God thinks he made a pretty good thing over there in Moab. He thinks that those vineyards are pretty impressive. They're pretty great, and he created that land, and he's the one that made the soil good for growing vineyards. and that god like enjoys when people rejoice over his creation when he sees people god likes a party apparently like so when he sees the people rejoicing over the harvest he also takes joy in

that and therefore is um upset and uh and brokenhearted when those things come to an end that that won't be no more because uh what it tells you is that those things are objectively good yeah yeah don't you love how the uh the image of joy often in scriptures is a party yeah it's like a feast yeah there is no like there is no image of god as some sort of puritanical deity who's you know all concerned about being somber and serious all the time there's a whole a lot of partying and feasting and having fun and being joyful going on in the scriptures

where God is concerned. You get much more picture of God gathering up the angels and be like, check it out. They're celebrating over the harvest. Isn't that wonderful? Look at how beautiful this is. That's more the image you get. Yeah, it turns out God actually likes

His creation. I mean, He made it, right? He made it to be this way. And so He rejoices over our rejoicing also yeah and doesn't uh is not happy about seeing it all like trampled uh and burnt down and uh you know you think about what a land looks like uh post-invasion and it's certainly not the way that god designed it right it's it's all it's all destruction and um and yeah that's god views that as an evil yeah all right so we're almost done here a couple more verses finish this out

verse 12 and when moab presents himself when he wearies himself on the high place when he comes to his sanctuary to pray he will not prevail this is the word that the lord spoke concerning moab in the past but now the lord has spoken saying in three years like the years of a hired worker the glory of moab will be brought into contempt in spite of all his great multitude and those who remain will be very few and feeble so verse 12 is accenting the fact that uh moab can go up to their own little worship sites you know their high place so they can pray to their god but you know what's going to happen nothing they're not going to prevail nothing's going to come of this they're they're going to the wrong place i mean isaiah says where they should go they should go

to jerusalem that's where they should pray in fact when solomon dedicated the temple he prayed that god would hear the prayers of the gentiles the non-israelites who came to the temple to pray that's where that's where they belong and then he adds this conclusion these last couple verses about kind of a second prophecy, maybe something that's going to be more in the imminent future. He says, in three years, like the years of a hired worker. That seems to mean like, okay, so if you're a hired hand and you're getting paid by the clock,

you know what you're going to watch? The clock. I've done that. This is not hypothetical for me. I'll tell you what, man. This is very true. uh i've had i've had many jobs that are um by the hour like you know a clock in clock out type of thing and yeah man you you know you know it's and that's all great but anyone who's ever done that

or is still doing that knows that there are some days where you're like is that clock broken like you just like staring at you like that clock is not moving at all i checked that clock like three hours ago and it's only moved 15 minutes yes yeah that kind of thing but uh that's exactly that's exactly right and of course the more you watch that clock the slower it goes right so when it says in three years like the years of a hired worker that means in exactly three years that's that's what that idiom is talking about so in exactly three years or as the hebrew would put it in three years like the years of a hired worker the glory of moab is going to be brought into contempt and who's going to be left well not many here's our remnant theme once more and even the

remnant is going to be very few and and feeble so that's that's the end of the moabite uh oracle i mean there's there's hope there but there's hope only well there's always only hope and that's with the promises of the lord otherwise there is nothing but hopelessness yeah yeah it is it is so weird too that with all of this up to this point you know all this language like hey get ready for it uh people of god because it's coming and it's gonna and it's gonna be horrible also i'm gonna need you to uh be the the one source of uh deliverance for these other people and so they both of these things are are sort of true at the same time where it's like oh you're about to get judged but you're still the only place with the promise i mean to translate this into

you know relatively modern history i would think of how many how many nations over the course of the 20th century you know where you had through the wars you know terrible century because of so many different wars all the the destruction desolation hopelessness despair and yet even in these places what still remained well churches right the churches that continue to preach the gospel the churches which continue to give out hope to people i mean it's no different no different today as well you can have a place which is war-torn and devastated and on the brink of just complete destruction and yet you'll still have christians gathering around praying holding out hope for the people that are around them well that's basically israel's calling in the ancient

oral was to do that as well for the moabites who were around them okay so we have a few months left we can jump into chapter 17 uh this is uh if you just read the opening sentence it can be a little bit misleading because it says an oracle concerning damascus well it is concerning damascus but it's also concerning the northern kingdom of israel and i think there's a bit of a of a of a jibe that's going on here where Isaiah is preaching an oracle concerning Damascus, but at the same time he's preaching it against the northern kingdom because what have they done? Well, they have allied themselves with Damascus, which is, you know, another name for its capital of Aram or Syria. So he's couching this whole oracle under Damascus, the capital of Aram or Syria,

but the northern kingdom has allied itself with these gentiles and so the faith that befalls them is also going to fall the northern kingdom so their their destiny is now subsumed under the destiny of damascus or syria because rather than turning to the lord they've chosen to turn to their neighbors and in turning to their neighbors they have distanced themselves from god and thus moved outside of his realm of protection so what happens to damascus is also going to happen to to israel so it starts out i'll read the first uh three verses an oracle concerning damascus behold damascus will cease to be a city it's going to become a heap of ruins the cities of auror are deserted they're going to be for flocks which will lie down and none will make them afraid

Pretty common theme there of a city that's being completely wiped out, deserted. And what has become? Becomes nothing more than a big sheep pen, more or less. The fortresses will disappear from, and here we get it, Ephraim. Of course, that is another name for the northern kingdom. So we're talking about Damascus, but we're also talking about Ephraim or Israel. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus. and the remnant of syria will be like the glory of the children of israel declares the lord of

host there's a lot of debate as to what this means when it says like the glory of the children of israel i don't know i i i tend to think that this is being used ironically like oh yeah like air quotes around glory yeah the glory of the israelites which is not glorious because they're being wiped out that same glory is going to be shared by the remnant of of syria that's how i take that i mean you could you could spin it positively in the sense that there's going to be a remnant left and that remnant is going to be like the the remnant glory of the israelites only a few of a small remnant is going to be there but it will at least still have the the glory of the promise connected with it i mean i guess you could take that either way but i tend to think this is

kind of being used in that uh backwards sort of way an inglorious glory if you will yeah well This is always the glory of Israel is never that glorious the way that we think of glorious, right? I mean, maybe in Solomon's heyday, it was like something. But after that, like when the real glory of Israel shows up, it's like homeless and wandering around, you know, preaching with some like misfit people. We've seen his glory. Yeah. Well, you have, but it's not what you would think of when you see the glory of God, not the ministry. not the ministry of jesus yeah for sure it does seem as though all of these places that um

because again you're you're you're zoomed in on israel here and then but there's all this stuff like surrounding it so here like the north and they've aligned themselves with this so they got to get wiped out too now like and so like there's um it i hadn't thought about it honestly, until we were recording this, but God sort of protecting Israel is a real benefit to the surrounding area. And you are getting the real impression that this is a real bummer,

that Israel's idolatry is really costing the surrounding area. Yeah. Yeah, the repercussions are broad, even though the surrounding countries might not realize the reason this is happening. They are certainly feeling the brunt of the Assyrian onslaught, and Damascus is one of those countries. They, you know, they wanted to defend themselves against the Assyrians, and they saw the northern kingdom, and the northern kingdom was ready and willing.

So they said, hey, join our band, and maybe together we can withstand these superior powers. But, well, that didn't work. In fact, I just was checking out this morning. So this is an excerpt from Tiglath-Pileser's inscriptions. This is how he describes what he did to Damascus. I overran the land of Damascus, the entire land. I captured their cities and plundered them. I carried off the people of the land together with their possessions to Assyria.

I slew their king. I set up governors over them. I took 16 districts of Damascus along with their cities and annexed them to the land of Assyria. Their people were deported. So there you have it. That's what befell them from the Assyrians. So they put their trust in the wrong place. Instead of putting their trust in the promises,

sure, in certain promises to David, they put their trust in an alliance. And that alliance did not bring them what they wanted. And we have more. We made it through the first three verses. We're going to hear more about what's coming up in verse 4 and following. But I guess we've got to wait until next time. We'll see you.