40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 58:8-59:16 (Episode 500)

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Don't turn back your foot from the Sabbath. God has big ears, long arms, and open eyes. And peace can ultimately only be found in one person. 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: 1517 Youtube: How God Still Speaks Today Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Dr. Christopher Richmann The Essential Nestingen: Essays on Preaching, Catechism, and the Reformation Philip Melanchthon's Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Translated by Dr. Derek Cooper 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. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. and while you're over there make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing read some articles sign up for some academies you know uh watch some chad videos do a bible in one year i know it's maybe march when this comes out but jump in now it's fine we're not out here trying to make you feel bad you don't have to even catch up you can just jump in right then it's fine

and of course sign up for some events you know you want to come hang out with chad and myself in bentonville arkansas that's may 1st and 2nd grab some tickets to that there's only a few of those left so get on it come hang out with us and then also you can hang out with us in sunny san diego uh in october we're gonna be talking about guess what the bible and if chad and i aren't enough to get you there come hang out with wesley huff also known as wesley buff uh you can hang out with that guy and uh that's you know if that's something you're interested in So we're going to be talking about the Bible, uh, get over there and, uh, sign up for that. Chad, we are in Isaiah 58 talking about that true and false fasting.

That's the, that's the header on it. Uh, the people say we've been doing a lot of this fasting and we're not getting what we want, uh, out here skipping lunch for nothing. And, uh, God says, oh yeah, you know, I'll tell you what, the thing I would, here's the fast I would love to see. How about you fast from being wicked? that would be great. Uh, that's, that'd be, how about you just fast from being the way you are? That's what, that's what I would like. And, uh, and that's kind of, that's kind of where we ended.

He's got a different fast that he wants to call than, uh, not eating, uh, breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. Fast from being who you are. And, uh, you know, if you want to focus on food or ego or not eating food, well, I've got a better idea for you. Once you take that bread you're not eating and give it to the hungry you know once you help out the homeless uh you walk by somebody who's basically has any barely has any clothes on i want you to cover him up you know so so do some good deeds uh that's that's a really good kind of fast that that i like so that's that's where we ended verse verse seven so verse eight's gonna pick this up and uh eight through, I'll read eight through 10. Here's what God goes on to say. Then shall your light break

forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. And then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. So much good stuff there. You want some light, you want some good things, well then stop basically catering your your religious your spiritual life in such a way that it's nothing more than a form of self-service right that's really it's really all you you've

been doing is doing this for yourself well if you if you want to if you want to actually live a life in accordance with what i want well then live a life of love and humility and then you're to have some light breaking forth and some healing. And you're going to call, I love this line, you shall cry and he will say, here I am. It's such a beautiful image. Like you're crying out to God and he's like standing right there. He's like, yeah, I'm right here. I'm right here with you. And then the taking with a yoke from your midst, we don't use that kind of language anymore, but throughout the Old Testament, the yoke is an image for oppression. It's often used for uh especially foreign powers you know the yoke of egypt the yoke of the assyrians the yoke

of the babylonians all that all that kind of stuff but in this case it's the yoke that probably the halves are laying on the half knots you know you're putting some oppression on people in your in your midst whatever is meant by the pointing of the finger i mean we have that same kind of expression that we use uh in in english this is the only interesting this is the only place in the old testament where this particular hebrew expression is found about pointing with a finger but you know in the context you can kind of figure it out using some sort of non-verbal imagery in order to accuse or something along those lines but it's in this in this context it's talking about the yoke and speaking wickedness and pointing of the fingers so

all of that basically directed toward other people so that's that's what god is after and that's the result the gift that he wants to give yeah i mean the point to the finger and the speaking wickedness usually go uh hand in hand i don't know if you've ever noticed but when somebody is uh like you know pointing the finger at someone else they're usually not silent uh there's usually a speech that's uh attached to that right they're not yeah they're not just not just pointing and then you're like what are you pointing at and then they're like oh just pointing at that person over there and let me tell you how great they are they're like you see that person over there let tell you something about them uh that's yeah that's how that usually goes yeah verbal and

non-verbal usually go pretty hand in hand and glove uh especially if it happens to be one particular finger that's yeah that's being pointed at us yeah there's that might be the one case where like the like you don't have to say anything like it's yeah it does communicate at all for sure so uh yeah the using of fingers to uh express things though that's been going on for for a long time. He goes on in verse 11. So that was 8 through 10. He goes on in verse 11 and 12 to say this, and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt and you shall raise up the foundations of many

generations. You should be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. To kind of get the full flavor for this, keep in mind that everything has been discussed up to this point. So, you know, things are not looking good. There's a lot of, there's not just the oppression and the evil that are going on, but also there's just a lot of deprivation. Things are not great in Jerusalem. And so this is Isaiah's way of saying, hey, you know, things can be a lot better. If you comport yourself in a way that is in accordance with the way that God has made you to be and called you to be. And then you have all this imagery about making things good, being like a watered garden, having foundations, being the repairer of the breach, the watered garden. No longer are you living basically in a drought condition, but you have plenty of the blessings of God in your midst.

And those blessings then are going to bear fruit in all these sorts of ways. You know, when Jesus tells you that, hey, if you pray for anything, like in my name, I'll give it to you, and you're like, wow, that's kind of incredible. Let's see, what could I pray for? I think that there's this implication that you're not thinking big enough at all in your prayers. You're going to ask for something stupid. Like you're going to ask to win the lottery or something temporal, like it solves these temporal problems or whatever. And it seems like here God is like, yeah, I mean, you're trying to like skip meals or whatever or fast or whatever. And you're just trying to get something, right?

Like you want me to do something. What I'm telling you is that like I've got like way better stuff in mind for you, right? You're thinking way too small. And so if you stop thinking about this as just merely like this transactional thing where you fast and then like I give you this like little blessing or whatever. How about I just be your God and I just make everything good, right? Like, I mean, that's like a much better deal. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just like it's – yeah, it's the Sermon on the Mount, right? You want this, you want that. Well, all those things are what the Gentiles go after. Yeah. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That's the best, right? These are all the good things that God is not just desirous to give you, but will in fact give you. So keep your eyes on the important things in the big perspective.

Yeah, this is what does Paul say that God who is able to do far more than you have ever imagined, right? of yeah yeah your imagination is just too small like you you want uh to do something for god and then have him do something for you which is i don't know give you the job you want or whatever and god's trying to make you live forever you know that's right god god can i have this little little crumb of bread on the ground and god's like i got like a whole table full of a feast here and you're asking me for for that yeah much better things i want to give you all right uh we'll finish up the chapter here this is 13 and 14. we he talked about the sabbath before uh i think even in the previous chapter and he's going to bring it up again here

so it's going to end with uh a little sabbath talk and then some uh language actually all the way from back in Deuteronomy. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable. And if you honor it, not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly. In other words, basically, if you enjoy the Sabbath in the way that I made it to be, it's basically a day to delight in me, to rest in me. That's the way you honor it, right? By just resting in the work and the good gifts of God. If you do that, well, then you're going to take delight in the Lord. And here's the language from all the way back in Deuteronomy. This is echoing Deuteronomy

32, 13. He says, I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So way back in Deuteronomy 32 verse 13, we have this language. He made him ride on the high places of the land and he ate the produce of the field. He suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, which of course is just hyperbolic poetic kind of language for basically he's going to make your life everything that God wants your life to be. I mean, you're not going to be like, slogging your way through the lowest, darkest pit, but you're going to be riding on the heights of the earth. In other words, you're going to be with God. You're going to be living the life that God

wants you to live. You're going to be feeding with the heritage of Jacob, your father. And the reason all this is sure is because God has said it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken, which I didn't realize until i just happened to look it up one day that only isaiah uses that phrase for the mouth of the lord has spoken if you'd asked me i'd have been like yeah yeah that's all over that's all over the prophets but that particular phrase uh only i isaiah uses it three times for the mouth of the lord has spoken it's it's a great phrase it's like yeah well how do you know all this is true isaiah's like because god's mouth said it that's how that's how we know and he always speaks the truth yeah well and and you have to you have to read some of this i mean this is like

eschatological uh promises here so yeah um this is all not that god won't do some of like sort of you know some of this or or sort of uh foreshadowing and give you some of this and deliver you from real stuff now but like what he's really talking about is like i'm going like i've got something in mind that i'm going to do but i want you to be part of it and you can tell that that's the case when he says like i'm going to feed you with the heritage of jacob and like well what is that right well this is all the promises that he made to jacob and his father and his father right and uh all of these like obviously find their ultimate fulfillment in christ he's trying to get you into that yeah yeah and even the uh i mean the sabbath certainly has

its place in the under the old covenant but when you think about what the sabbath was actually pointing toward that you hear about in the gospels and especially you hear about in the book of hebrews it's all pointing to christ right who is our sabbath rest you know even after jesus has one of his disputes with the pharisees about the sabbath the very next section is where jesus says come to me all you who are worried and have it laid and i will give you rest in other words look you're looking at your sabbath right here i am your sabbath and uh you rest in me and all of the various parts of the sabbath the old in the old covenant were basically just a way of pointing to the final rest that you that you have in me so yeah all of this is just laced through and

through with eschatological kinds of promises and fulfillments that are in isaiah kind of leading us really toward where Isaiah will wrap everything up when he talks about a new heavens and a new earth that are to come. Well, I mean, the author of Hebrews, basically, his whole book is verse 13. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, and his whole book is, hey, don't turn back from the Sabbath. And by Sabbath, I mean Jesus. That's the whole book. That's the whole book. That's right. It's like, listen, people, it's kind of like the equivalent of Galatians in a way. Galatians, of course, is written by people who are like trying to go back. They're sort of trying to be Christians, but also under the old covenant, right?

You know, we got to keep some of these laws here, too. Well, Hebrews is kind of the equivalent of that in the sense that the recipients are being lured, tempted back into the old ways as if Christ hasn't already come. and fulfilled all these things and yeah the author of hebrews is just like what are you doing i mean all that stuff was fine under the old covenant but we have something new and better new and better sacrifice everything yeah the argument is not it's sort of pointless to go back it's kind of fruitless it's kind of a waste of time like it's a waste of time to go back it's not that it's It's like, hey, that stuff was great, but now to go back to that isn't even just neutral. It's actually, like, damnable to go back.

Like, you can't do it, right? Because, I mean, the Sabbath took on flesh, buddy. And so you can't be listening to people that say, I mean, but you kind of need a priest. But, I mean, look at, I mean, you probably still ought to go to the temple. like that's not just like a unnecessary thing you can't do it yeah yeah to continue to offer animal sacrifices thinking that they're going to atone for your sins is to tread underfoot the blood of the lamb of god who ended all those sacrifices well it's got the most stark warning in all of all of scripture attached to it where basically the author of hebrews says i'm not even

sure you can repent from that right yeah which is which is a crazy statement yeah yeah it is i've known a a handful of people personally who have left christianity and and and converted to judaism it always i mean anytime somebody leaves christianity it breaks my heart but when that happens i'm like oh man this is like hebrews happening right in front of my eyes yeah you know yeah it's uh so disheartening all right well back to isaiah so that finished chapter 58 we are making progress dan we are yeah i mean i don't know if i want to say the end is in sight but it's definitely much much closer all right so 59 let me uh let me just actually just read uh the uh the opening couple of verses to kind of get a feel for where he's going with us

He starts out by saying, look, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear, 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. In other words, you know, they're complaining earlier, well, we're, you know, we're skipping lunch and God's not doing anything for us. We're depriving ourselves and he's not holding up his end of the bargain, you know, and With the implication being it must be something wrong with God, right? Maybe his ear is dull.

He's hard of hearing. He can't hear us. Or maybe something's wrong with him. His hand is so short it cannot save. And Isaiah comes along and says, look, the issue here is not God's ability. It's like his power to save or that he can't hear your prayers. The issue is not God's inability. It's your sin.

That's a problem. Your iniquities have created this huge chasm between you and God. And if his face is hidden from you, it's because your sins, he looked at your sin and he's like, I can't look at that. He's like, just imagine you're in this horrible situation. You're looking at something that just is so revolting that you can't, you turn away. That's kind of the idea here. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he doesn't hear.

So that's kind of where he's transitioning. He's going to say a lot more about the people's sins, but that's kind of where he sets the stage. He's taking these people who say that God's unable or unwilling or whatever it might be. He's in some way hampered from being the God that they want him to be. He's like, no, you got this backwards. That's not the issue at all. Yeah, yeah. God's arm is still long.

His ear is still big. You are the problem. Yes, yeah. yeah to sum up god's not the problem you are the problem here uh and then so he's he's kind of laid it out there in a general sort of way now he's going to get specific uh as to what these separation creating iniquities are and these face hiding sins are he says verse three and and following your hands a little bit different hebrew word here than the hands we heard about in verse one about the Lord's hand. This is more like your palm. Cough is the Hebrew word here, but your

hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. 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. We'll stop there for a second. So he's got them all covered. He's got your hands or your palms at your fingers and your lips and your tongue. So he's hitting the various body parts here to accent all the various ways that these sins that have made a separation between you and God are described. And then he gets real specific. I mean, certainly words are specific and the hands defiled with blood are indicative of violence. But he also says, listen, you people are going to court. You're

a very litigious society. And nobody's going to court because they have some sort of just case that they want to argue. They're going there because just a bunch of lies and empty pleas. In other words, they're not looking for justice. They're looking for profit. Probably be a good way to handle this. A lot of civil suits going on here, it seems. Yeah, a lot of civil suits going on so it's not like somebody's been wrong and they're just out for you know looking for justice these lawsuits are created simply to make money and to oppress oppress other people i mean and you know that never happens today of course everybody goes to law honestly i love that uh he he's he starts moving into like this birthing thing they conceive missed you know mischief and

They give birth to iniquity, and the next line is like a bunch of snake eggs lying around here, which is great. Yeah, it's quite a transition. It's not something you would see coming, you know, conceive mischief, give birth to iniquity. We have that language elsewhere. Job in Psalm 7 also used the same kind of language about conceiving trouble or conceiving mischief and giving birth to lies or giving birth to iniquity. But yeah, you don't see. So what do they hatch? They're hatching the serpent eggs, right? Adder's eggs. And if that, you know, doesn't kind of give you the creeps, he moves into the spider realm. Then he says they weave the spider's web and he who eats their eggs dies. And from one that is crushed, a viper is hatched. Well, that'll give you some nightmares there.

You're out there gathering some snake eggs and letting them hatch or feeding them to other people. Viper comes out of this egg and they're weaving the spider's web. So, in other words, this is, of course, very metaphorical, troubling language to describe all the various ways that they're engaged in mischief. So you got the clear evil that's going on, right? But then verse 6 is almost humorous because he says, their webs, so he talks about their weaving spider's webs, 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. So not only are you engaged actively in wickedness, but you're making things that are useless.

I mean, the whole thing is kind of just comical. You know, what are you going to cover? What are you going to wear? What's going to keep you warm and safe? Well, I got this shirt I made out of a spider's web. It's not going to help you. Your webs will not serve as clothing. That's not going to help you out.

So not only is your evil useless, but it's, of course, actively harming other people as well. And whatever you do is a work of inequity. Yeah, and it doesn't hide you. It doesn't cover you. uh in other words uh there's nothing wrong with god's arm and there's nothing wrong with his ear there's also nothing wrong with his eyes and so like you you can cover yourself in these spider webs buddy but uh i see what's going on here yeah at least adam and eve had fig leaves right they're not like grabbing spider webs and trying to wrap themselves uh surely god won't see what

god surely god can't see what we're up to with these spider webs all over us yeah surely not I mean, we are hidden from his view. All right, verse 7. Verse 7 actually is going to become part of Paul's argument to the Romans in chapter 3 of Romans, where he has that whole list of verses he's pulled from the Psalms and elsewhere, like Isaiah, to describe the universality of sin. Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. And then he starts this whole damning list of these descriptions of sinful humanity.

And part of that list is drawn from Isaiah 59, 7 and 8, which I'll read now. Their feet run to evil. They are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know. There is no justice in their paths. They've made their roads crooked and no one who treads on them knows peace. So yeah, Paul picks up on that language in Romans 3 where he says, this is

3.15 through 18. He says, their feet are swift to shed blood and their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And I don't know how many verses from the Old Testament Paul draws on in that particular section of Romans 3, but they're all over the place. And these are, of course, a great, great example because it shows that people aren't like, oh, you know, it takes them a while to finally do evil. It's like, no, man, they're like Usain Bolt out there. They're running to evil, swift to shed blood. And it's not just like outward stuff. It all begins inside because their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity and the way of peace they don't know.

You know, one thing that you start to pick up on is that God is actually—one of the things that bothers him so much about sin is how destructive sin is, not just to you, but to peace in general. So peace is something that God really desires for people. and his creation. I mean, he is the prince of it after all. And, uh, and all the time you'll be like, man, like they just don't know anything about peace. I mean, they don't know the way of peace. They're out here destroying peace. Uh, the thing I'm trying to give you is peace. And, uh, and certainly like if you, if you live in life in a fallen world, which you are, you know, that like peace is like this really elusive thing. Every once in a while you get like your hands on a little bit of it um like maybe everyone's healthy everything's everyone's

happy all the bills are paid and you just have like this moment of of peace and it's not even like the like the ultimate peace but it's like a a little bit of it uh and then it goes quick though like i mean it is it is fleeting uh and then and i think though like if you think back That's a time when you have that, you're like, yeah, man, there's kind of nothing better than that. That's the best, right? And what God means to do is give you that all the time, which sounds pretty great. But we just, we refuse to operate like that. That's right.

Yeah, I mean, you said it so well. I can think of some occasions in my life where it was like that. you know where it's like you look around you're like man i don't even see anything wrong right now yeah this is incredible oh my goodness i think everything's good like yeah it's crazy i might just go sit outside like just yeah like everything's done i got i got no deadlines pressing on me no one i got no you know there's no calamities happening you know like it's yeah it's it's like a euph it's like a euphoria too because it is so rare it's like man if i could just capture this and and bottle it and on occasion take a little sip of it uh because it is

it is so rare and i don't know if it's me i don't know if it's getting older i don't know if it's just having you know life experiences uh behind you or you didn't have peace it's like a battle for me when those things when those times come for me not to at the same time be full of anxiety like what's going to happen though what's going to ruin my peace it's like i want to say to myself just shut up chad just listen enjoy the peace and relish this time and just you know receive it as the gift that it is and yeah it's not gonna last but don't ruin it by thinking yeah but what's gonna happen next what's gonna mess my piece well i even think that like a little bit of that is what god is trying to give you in the sabbath and and uh yeah and this is but you make the sabbath

like horrible i just right i just like there's no peace so but i think he's trying to give you like, almost like at the end of your week, you know, well, the first day of the week, but create like this opportunity for you to maybe breathe a little bit, you know? And of course, you know, we're like, nah. Yeah. Yeah.

Working hard on the Sabbath to mess things up. Very true. Okay. So we're, we just finished the first eight verses. Now verse nine actually is a bit of a transition because we're going to begin to hear about us and we. So there's a lot of first-person plural that begins at verse 9. That really hasn't been happening in those first few verses.

It's more like they, so their feet, the way of peace, they do not know, whoever they are. I mean, it's just kind of talking about people, people in general. But here we're going to hear, beginning with verse 9, we're going to have some us and we language. So I'll read, maybe I'll do 9 through 13. 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 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. We all growl like bears and moan and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us. I said I was going to read through 13, but I'm going to stop there. That's 9 through 11. Notice that in 9, it mentions justice and righteousness. In 11, it mentions justice and salvation. So kind of a bookend for those three verses it's a pretty depressing section actually you know because it's like we're looking for light and everything we find is darkness and especially especially that verse that says we stumble at noon as in the twilight it's like they're so trapped in darkness it's it's got to be like

an inward darkness so outwardly it's like it's lunchtime right the sun is high in the sky but they're stumbling around like they're blind because there's there's so much gloom and darkness inside them that they're blinded. And then he finishes that short section by using animal imagery, growling like bears and moaning and moaning like doves. That verb for moan is the same word we use for, it's translated elsewhere as meditate. It's just like the idea of some sort of verbal sound that's escaping you, whether it's a good sound, like you're meditating on the word of god you're speaking the words or whether it's more like you're moaning uh like a dove or growling like a like a bear but the whole section kind of captures what happens when you don't have

justice and righteousness and salvation you stumble around you make these sounds which are an expression of the misery that's inside you yeah yeah and uh you're trying to get some justice man Yeah, like this hope for justice, but salvation is far from you, which is just another way of saying that God is far from you, right? That's all that means. Yeah, that's right. I mean, you can talk in abstract about justice or righteousness, or you can talk about concrete justice and righteousness, but it all goes back to the fact that really what you're looking for is God. I mean, you have God, you have justice, you have God, you have salvation and righteousness. So let me finish out that section, then 12 and 13.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us and we know our iniquities, transgressing and denying the Lord and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. It's quite a confession. I think this line especially, I mean, I've read this a lot of times, but for some reason this time, uh, those words really got my attention where he says, our sins testify against us. Yeah. This thing of this, it's like this courtroom setting and you're on trial and the witnesses

are called and, uh, all of your sins are like sitting over there, lined up, ready to stand up as witnesses against you. You know, your lust walks forward, takes the seat, bears witness against you. your hate walks forward takes a seat testifies against you you know all the all your sins are lined up ready to take the witness stand and testify against you like oh man this is going to be a long trial right uh and he i mean he's real explicit here about what this all boils down to is we've instead of following our god we've turned back from from following our god and the result of all that the bad fruit of all that is everything he's been describing well and this is

the compounding effect of uh not having a god to take your sins to right and so you're not you're not treating this god as your god so you are not taking your sins to him so your sins are what multiplying this is what this is what it says right they're multiplying so why is salvation far from you well because your sins are multiplying and with every sin you're getting pushed further and further back and you're not doing anything about it isn't just a matter of you knocking it off but you don't have this god who can do something about these sins like you're not you don't have that's not your god right now and so uh god is god is strange because on one hand like sin separates you from god on the other hand the only way to get rid of sin is to bring it to

god right so that this is this is how it works and so if you if you do not bring your sin to god your sin separates you from god because not being a sinner is not an option right exactly yeah which is a the perfect segue into what he's going to talk about next which we won't get very far into it but it's kind of a a nice beginning there because god's going to begin to to say can size things up and be like okay well what what in the world is is going to happen here he says uh this is 14 he says justice is turned back righteousness stands far away truth has stumbled in the public squares uprightness cannot enter so you look all around you know the words you got individuals you got a whole culture that is messed up, got no justice, got no righteousness. Truth stumbled

in the public square. I love that image there. Like truth can't even walk. It's like stumbling around everywhere it goes. Truth is lacking. And listen to this. This is another one of those lines that just got my attention this morning. He who departs from evil, okay, that's a good thing, right? You're going to leave evil. The one who gets away from evil makes himself a prey. That's P-R-E-Y. What does that mean? It means that there's a target on his back. The guy who departs from evil? Yeah. The guy who dares, who is so audacious as to leave evil, then he becomes a target. He becomes a prey for the predator. And that really kind of captures the essence of what's happening here, where the enemy becomes the one who speaks the truth. The enemy becomes

the one who departs from evil. He's the one who is attacked. And verse 15 ends by saying, the Lord saw it. And one of the biblical understatements, it displeased him. I bet it did. And it displeased him. Yeah, it sure did. That there was no justice. He saw that there was no man. And ESV says he wondered that there was no one to intercede. I don't know why they chose that. It's a much stronger Hebrew verb here. It's like he was appalled, which is what some other translations have there. He wasn't just like, hmm, curious. Hmm, that's interesting.

There's no one to intercede. He was like appalled that there was no one to intercede. And then I'll wrap up with this last part of 16. Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. in other words god looked around he's like ah if you want a job done right you got to do it yourself so i'm gonna be the one who does who does this this has some uh this has some noah vibes to it right like god's looking around and being like man like looks like looks like there's nobody i mean just nobody and and man i did make that promise uh to not just wipe this place out

So I guess I'm going to have to use my own arm. That's what it's going to be. I'm going to have to do it myself. Yeah, which is, I think it was, I was hoping we'd get to that part. It's a great way to end because so much of this is just depressing. And I mean, it's just law and yeah, everywhere you look, iniquity, evil, injustice, God sees it too. And it displeased him.

He was appalled that there was no one who was going to be able to take care of this. So he's like, well, I'm going to do it, and my own arm is going to bring salvation. And that will lead us then to verse 17 when we come back for the next episode. Awesome. All right. Well, Chad, I will see you then. All right. See you then.

I'll see you next time.