Isaiah 23:1-5 - Be silent, you people of the island

23:1-3

The natural tendency is to focus on the military action, for this has the most immediate and devastating effect. However, many of the prophecies against nations are also concerned with the economic aspects, and Isaiah has been dealing with the Phoenician commercial empire. Tyre and Sidon (which are effectively treated as one) were part of that empire. In modern times there are nations that seek to maintain neutrality, eg Switzerland and Sweden in the second world war. There is no neutrality with God. No one knows exactly where Tarshish was, but wherever it was they received news of Tyre being destroyed. 

Tyre and Sidon achieved great financial success, becoming the “marketplace of the nations”. She may have felt secure, but everyone is subject to God’s judgement.

23:4,5

The lament attributed to the sea (or fortress of the sea here) is saying that the sea would no longer provide Tyre and Sidon with the riches that it once did. Being a trading centre the sea was vital to the wealth of Tyre and Sidon. Other nations fed off the commercial success of Tyre, and they too would suffer when Tyre fell. Egypt is singled out here as an example of that. Today we see the global economy, with so many interactions. The downfall of one part can have enormously far reaching effects.

Mark 10:46-48 - Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

10:46

We know of Jericho for the time when its walls collapsed after Joshua and the Israelites marched around the city. This ancient city was  largely abandoned, but a new city had been built. Matthew 20:29-34 has Jesus healing two blind men at Jericho and it may be that they are referring to different Jericho’, one to the old, and one to the new. Whichever Jericho it was, it seems that they came and they left, and nothing much happened! Bartimaeus was sitting at the roadside begging.

10:47

The blind man heard that it was Jesus who was around and so called out to Him in a loud voice, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”. Clearly the man had heard about Jesus and the things that He was doing.  “Son of David” is a messianic title, and is the only use of this term in Mark, apart from Jesus’ use of it in Mark 12:35. The man asked for mercy. He knew that Jesus was someone special, and had authority.

10:48

Many rebuked the man for calling out, they must have thought it somewhat unseemly. However, the man was not to be deterred. So why was he not deterred? There were two factors, and these were working together. First, there was his condition, being blind. This was highly debilitating and he was desperate, or at least very keen, to be healed. The second was that he had faith in Jesus. When these two things work together we will act in ways that others cannot understand, nor will they be able to stop us. There is a strength to being desperate and full of faith. It is also why the world will not overcome the church. A world without God is a desperate world to live in, there is a loss of all sorts of things, including freedom and tolerance. Indeed, we see this happening in the West at present. Have you noticed how utterly unforgiving and unmerciful the world is? No matter how hard the world tries, there are always people who still have faith in the Lord. Many a society has tried to squash this, but none have succeeded.

Isaiah 22:15-25 - The Lord will hurl you away

22:15,16

Isaiah is now told to go to a named official, Shebna. The prophecies are both wide ranging, global and very personal. An individual is singled out here for attention. He was digging a grave for himself. Now this seems to us a rather odd thing to be doing, but what it signified was a belief that he would be in Jerusalem for the rest of his days. It implies a degree of security and settledness that was utterly un justified.

22:17-19

The steward Shebna apparently had a high opinion of himself, considering himself to be strong and important. The Lord would take hold of him as if he was nothing at all and cast him away into a far flung country, and he would die in that country. This was a particular ignominy for such a man. He would be ousted from his position of privilege and power.

22:20-25

Now Shebna is told who will replace him, Eliakim. Both Shebna and Eliakim are mentioned in Isaiah 36 and 37. It seems as if Eliakim just operated out of self-interest, whereas Shebna would genuinely care for the people of Jerusalem.Eliakim seems to be given a very favoured and secure place in Jerusalem. His position is described as being like a tent peg driven firmly into the ground. However, he will not be as secure as was thought. For a day is coming when the peg will be sheared off, and those depending upon the tent peg will suffer as well. We must trust only in the Lord, not even in those who seem to be faithful servants. This does not mean we should not honour and respect faithful and godly servants, but we must not idolise them.

Mark 10:39-45 - You will drink the cup I drink

10:39,40

Probably not knowing what they were accenting to, James and John declared that they could drink the cup that Jesus had to drink. Jesus knew they were talking nonsense, but even so He also knew that they would indeed be able to drink it. James was martyred, and John went on to live to an old age, but that included much suffering. We are weak and, to be honest, sometimes rather stupid, not knowing what we are talking about half the time. Even so, Jesus is able to enable us to do amazing things in His name. And this includes sharing in His sufferings. But note also that there is a limit to this, for James and John would not be on the crosses either side of Jesus.

10:41

Jesus also had words for all the disciples. The other ten got wind of what James and John had asked and were indignant. Now why were they indignant? Because they realised how crass was the request that they had made? Or was it because they feared that James and John were moving ahead of them in the blessing queue?

10:42,43

Jesus’ answer suggests that it was the latter of the two reasons put forward in my comments on v41. Jesus has to again explain to them that the kingdom of God operates on very different principles to those of the kingdoms of the world. In the world the rulers lord it over the ruled. In God’s kingdom the emphasis is on serving others. Our question should not be how can I get on, but how can I help others get on.

10:44,45

Jesus now draws the answer back to Himself. In order to be “first” we need to be the slave of all, and the supreme exemplar of this is Jesus Himself. He is the one through whom and for whom all things were created, yet He came to die for us, to serve us in a most extraordinary way. He gave His life as a ransom for many, to set many people, including you and me, free.

Isaiah 22:12-14 - The Lord called you to weep and wail

22:12,13

What was the Lord calling them to do? He was calling them to weep and wail, to repent of their sins. And the Lord did call on them to do this, repeatedly, sending prophet after prophet. Instead the people indulged in revelry, in partying. “Let us eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. I wonder how many people know where this phrase originates from! They were resigned to defeat, so they decided just to get drunk. They should have been turning to the Lord, then they could be healed, receive forgiveness and live. If we are on the brink of apparent disaster, we should turn to the Lord.

22:14

This attitude of not taking things seriously or just giving up receives a sharp rebuke from the Lord. “This sin will not be atoned for”. Jesus said that most troublesome statement when He said that any sin could be forgiven, except blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and no one really knows what it means. Perhaps we get a clue here. The Holy Spirit never tells us to give up, He may well (in fact He will) tell us to repent, but He never tells us that a situation is utterly hopeless.

Mark 10:35-38 - Can you drink the cup I drink?

10:35,36

“Then James and John ...” The “then” highlights the pathetic thinking of James and John, the sort of thinking that we can all be guilty of. Jesus has just been speaking of the crucifixion, the agony He would have to go through, the most important event in human history, and what are James and John thinking of? Themselves! As I say, we can all be guilty of this in various ways. “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask”. This would be a rather presumptuous thing to say at the best of times, but in these circumstances! So Jesus invited them to ask their question.

10:37,38

“Let us sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your glory”. Maybe in telling them about His death and resurrection Jesus had talked about His future glory, 10:32-34 is a highly truncated account. At least they realised that Jesus would be glorified, but beyond that they hadn’t a clue what they were asking for. “Can you drink the cup I drink?” They were in effect asking to be on the two crosses either side of Jesus on Golgotha! We may criticise James and John, and with some justification, but when we ask Jesus to draw us closer to Himself, or to lead us, or to fill us more with the Holy Spirit, we need to realise that this might involve Him leading us to a cross.

Isaiah 22:8-11 - The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah

22:8

This is almost certainly talking about the Assyrian attack. The “Palace of the Forest” was built by King Solomon (1 Kings 7:2) and was a storehouse, and they would look in there for weapons, but find none. By the time Assyria attacked Judah was in a very sorry state.

22:9-11

This tells of many action taken by the defenders of the city. They worked hard, they did everything humanly possible, everything but one thing, the one thing that could have saved them. They did not look to the Lord. They did not look to the one who made the city, the one of whose plans it was a part. In the church we can so often follow the same sad line. The church is God’s church, created by Him for His purposes, and yet so often we will not look to Him. Remember the situation Isaiah is looking at. The nation is under very real military threat from Assyria, the danger is a real and present danger. It is so easy in those sorts of situations to be overwhelmed by the circumstances, to think that we have to focus on the practical steps to the exclusion of all else, to the exclusion of God. We must not do that, we must turn to the Lord.

Mark 10:32-34 - They will kill him, three days later He will rise

10:32

Jesus and the disciples were on their way to Jerusalem. The disciples were astonished. Why was this? It was because, despite their seeming incomprehension of Jesus’ talk of suffering and resurrection, they knew that there was increasing danger from the religious leaders. So why go to Jerusalem, the centre of the religious leadership, surely it was asking for trouble? “Those who followed” are probably various hangers on, people who followed Jesus, but were not part of the close group of disciples.

10:33,34

Jesus took the twelve aside to explain to them what was going to happen. There will be times in our lives when God forewarns us of things that are going to happen before they do so. Now we can obviously go too far, expecting God to tell us every little detail of everything, or imagining God has told us all sorts of things when He has done nothing of the sort. So we do need to be sensible, but even so we should not be closed to the idea of God, on occasion, giving us advance notice. Jesus told the disciples what was going to happen. He would be handed over to the religious leaders and be condemned to death by them. Then He would be handed over to the Romans, they would mock Him, spit on Him, beat Him, and finally kill Him. Then Jesus will rise from the dead. Note that “bad things” happening can be part of God’s plan, but it is not the end of God’s plan. We are not told what the disciples reaction was, but going by their past record they would have appreciated little, and the next section would seem to confirm that this was again the case.

Isaiah 22:2-7 - Let me weep bitterly

22:2-4

The Assyrian leader Sargon died in 705 BC and at the time many of the vassal states rebelled, including Hezekiah if Judah. Neither the people nor the leaders understood the times. The leaders neglected their duty to lead the people in God’s ways. In our day we see our leaders are pretty useless, not having a clue about what is going on. Only Isaiah understood what was happening, and saw clearly into the future. He saw the destruction that was coming. The people would have said to him “things won’t be that bad”, but Isaiah knew just how bad things would become. So he refused any consolation.

22:5-7

This verse is in stark contrast to the common view that relief was now in sight. Isaiah tells them that the “Lord has a day of tumult and trampling and terror”, this is Isaiah looking ahead to the Babylonian conquest, which brought a terrible time upon Jerusalem. The description given by Isaiah matches what actually happened. At this time Elam, which lay to the east of Babylon, was allied with Babylon.  The location of Kir is not known. Jerusalem was to suffer two major attacks, the one by Assyria that failed because of divine intervention, and which we will read about in chapters 36-39, and the Babylonian attack which was devastating. The valleys are the Kidron and Hinnom valleys. It is at times difficult to be sure which attack Isaiah is looking at. Maybe the Assyrian one was a warning, a severe warning, but one which Judah failed to heed (see chapter 39).

Mark 10:26-31 - All things are possible with God

10:26,27

The disciples then come to the conclusion that they might as well give up for no one can be saved. Jesus then responds with the very important words “with man this is impossible, but not with God”. First, on a technical point. As mentioned earlier, it has been said that the eye of a needle was a narrow gate in Jerusalem. There is no archaeological evidence for any such gate. Then there is talk that word translated camel could be some sort of rope. Jesus makes it clear that the point is that it is impossible for man to save himself. This would leave us in a state of hopelessness, if it were not true that  “all things are possible with God”. But all things are possible with God, can God can save anyone. That needs to be the basis for our hope, both for ourselves on a personal level, and our hope in terms of the mission of the church.

10:28

It seems that Peter is still stuck on the notion that we can save ourselves. He notes that the young man had been told to sell everything, so Peter pipes up that they (the disciples) had indeed left everything. Surely this qualified them for heaven then seems to be what Peter is thinking.

10:29-31

Jesus doesn’t answer Peter’s implied question directly. The giving up of many things in this life will not be without its reward, both in this life and the next. This does not mean a prosperity gospel type richness, though God may bless us directly in material terms. In the kingdom of the world the emphasis is on looking after number one. In God’s kingdom things work differently. If we have control (stewardship) of goods, then we are to share them with others. Likewise, others who have goods share them with us. So the kingdom is a sharing community. This brings spiritual and material benefits. On the negative side, the breakdown of family life, and the fragmentation of society brings with it enormous costs, economic and social. On the positive side, when a community lives by kingdom principles there are great economic and social benefits.

Jesus closes this section with the words “many who are first will be last, and the last first”. We see a certain pecking order in the world, the “pecking order” in the kingdom is completely different, paying no heed to worldly standards.

Isaiah 22:1 - The Valley of Vision

22:1

The “valley of vision” is used to refer to Jerusalem (22:10). There have been prophecies against other nations, and now Jerusalem is lumped in with them. This is consistent with God’s overall purpose, and the whole tenor of Isaiah. Israel is both different and typical of all nations. She was chosen by God, were were all created by God, in His image. This is amazing if you think about it for even a moment. Israel rebelled against God, not just on a one-off basis, but it was typical of who she was. Rebelling against God was a way of life for Israel, and so it is for the whole of mankind. Yet God still loved her and would save her, just as He loves us and saves us through Christ.

But at this point Jerusalem had no interest in listening to Isaiah, though this would change when Assyria was at the walls. The use of the term “valley of vision” could be used to refer to places where Judah was seeking guidance from false gods (Is 8:19). Roofs were sometimes places went to pray to worship pagan deities.

Mark 10:23-25 - How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

10:23,24

The general belief was that those who had riches were blessed by God, hence the shock value of Jesus’ words, and the disciples’ reaction. When we say something that causes a reaction we then tend to soften what we have said, not wishing to offend anyone. Jesus usually does the exact opposite, He makes the offence even more stark, and that is the case here. He tells the disciples that it is very difficult to enter the kingdom of God. Note that He also calls them “children”. There are two things about His use of the word children. The first is a general sense of affection. Jesus is saying harsh things, but He does so in love, and it will be for the best. Secondly, remember that a few verses ago He said must enter the kingdom as a child (Mark 10:15). So there would seem to be an implication that while it is difficult to get into the kingdom, the disciples actually are in the kingdom.

10:25

Then, just in case the disciples haven’t grasped the point (which given their track record, is quite possible) Jesus tells them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. This is a very well known statement of Jesus. The “eye of a needle” is the eye of a needle, ie the bit at the top of a needle, not a particular gate in the walls of Jerusalem. Ie getting a camel through the eye of a needle was not just difficult, but absolutely impossible (see 10:27).

Isaiah 21:13-17 - They flee from the sword

21:13-17

Arabia covered a large area. The text actually says “against arabs”, needless to say this should not be taken in any “hate speech” sense! Verses 13 and 14 are speaking about various peoples helping other peoples recover from the effects of conflict. So they had found temporary refuge, but the emphasis of these words is that it is temporary.

“Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it”. The “as a servant would count it” bit means that it really would be within one year. A servant would work the hours and days of his “contract” and no more. The respite the people had found in Arabia would be brief, and then there would be few survivors.

So why does God give this prophecy? What is the point? The point is this. Judah was under great threat. In those circumstances the tendency is to look at other peoples, and some of them seem to be doing OK, seem to be finding a way out of the trouble. The people who had found relief from the war were one such people, and some Judeans would have looked at them and thought “they seem to be doing alright”. Isaiah is telling them that very soon these people would not be “doing alright”. Judah needed to look in one place, and one place only, and that was to look to God and at their own lives in the light of God’s word.

Mark 10:21,22 - Sell everything you have and give to the poor

10:21

Being Jesus, He knew exactly where the weak spot was in the man’s life. Note that it says that “Jesus loved him”. Now Jesus is going to say something that is really going to hurt the man, even drive him away. The love of God towards us is not sentimental mush. Jesus tells him to sell all that he ahs and give it to the poor, then he would have treasure in heaven and should come and follow Jesus. In arguments about tithing people sometimes argue that tithing is Old Testament, well there are two incidents where Jesus does talk about the amount we give, they both talk about giving 100% (He commends the poor woman who gave “all that she had”), so using Jesus as an excuse for giving less is not a very logical route to take, on many levels!

10:22

We can argue that Jesus does not mean all of us should sell everything we have, and that is right and consistent with the whole of New Testament teaching, but that is not the point here. The man was sad and went away, because he had many possessions. There can be things that we hold onto, be they material, or status or whatever, things that we hold on to as a source of security. They become part of our identity. There is nothing that we have that Jesus may not at some point in our lives command us to give up. If He does, He does this out of love, a far deeper love for us than we can ever realise. It will be so that we will have treasure in heaven, and so that we can truly follow Him. We cannot do this in our own strength, but need the Holy Spirit to work within us, to help us, but we need to understand the path the Spirit might lead us down. We all have areas in our life that we do not want to lose.

Isaiah 21:10-12 - Morning is coming, but also the night

21:10

Isaiah then addresses the people, a people who were “under the cosh”, a people increasingly threatened by Assyria. He tells them what he has heard from the Lord Almighty. So note the authority of his word. The people should look to God, not to human wisdom in order to understand the times, and to know how to respond.

21:11,12

“Duhmah” refers to Edom. Dumah was one of Ishmael’s sons (Gen 25:14) and means silence. Seir is Edom (Gen 32:3). At the time Edom was a nation very much on the wane. Judah’s expansion had harmed her (2 Kings 14:7, 22). She was paying tribute to Assyria and suffered military attack from her. It was night time for Edom, and v11 pictures someone from Edom calling out to Isaiah, the watchman, asking how much longer this would go on for.

Isaiah’s answer is not comforting. The Assyrian problems would come to an end, but the respite would be short, then an even worse calamity would happen, the Babylonian invasion. One might think of this like the end of the first world war, which brought much relief, but a short time later an even worse conflict would ensue.

Mark 10:17-20 - What must I do to inherit eternal life?

10:17

Never ask Jesus a question! At least not unless you are prepared to have all of you thinking challenged. A man ran up to Jesus, fell at His knees and asked “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now why did he do this? Did he realise there was something missing in his life, despite his great wealth (see v22)? Was he seeking to justify himself? Or did he recognise that in Jesus there was someone far greater than him, someone very different from everyone else?

10:18

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus seems to be trying to get the man to focus on the fact that he recognises something special about Jesus. “No one is good - apart from God”. The Old Testament says that all have sinned. It says it explicitly in Isaiah 53:6, and in the Psalms, and the whole of Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that if anyone is good it most certainly is not Israel.

10:19,20

Jesus then reminds the man of the ten commandments, or at least about half of them. The man would, of course, be fully aware of these. The ones cited by Jesus all involve outward behaviour, and the man declares that he has kept these since he was young. And this was probably true, but the man knew that something was still missing. I guess we can all identify with this. Outwardly we may pretty well conform with many of the commands, but we know that there are things within us, thoughts, attitudes, desires, that are definitely not godly. If we are honest we know that there is something wrong with us.

Isaiah 21:6-9 - Babylon has fallen!

21:6,7

So the world knows nothing. God tells Isaiah to post a look out to see what is really happening. God then tells Isaiah what the lookout will see. He will see chariots, horses, donkeys and camels with their riders. Ie he will see invading armies. The response is then to be fully alert. In the gospels (eg parable of the wise and foolish virgins) and in various letters we are told to be alert and on our guard. We must be careful not to be taken in by the world, but to look to God for wisdom.

21:8,9

The prophecies in the Bible are not just giving information, or just telling what will happen in the future, they are creating a drama in order to communicate the message. The messages are meant to reach both the hearts and minds of the hearers. So the lookout, commanded in 21:6, stays at his post doing his job. He is there day after day, night after night, and seemingly nothing is happening. Then one day he sees a man in a chariot with a team of horses and the man gives the message “Babylon has fallen”. “Babylon has fallen” is a constant refrain in Revelation (Rev 14:8, 18:2; 19:1-10). Babylon did fall in 689 BC and 539 BC. The first of these falls would be the defeat of a nation that Judah so as a possible ally against Assyria, the second is the fall on her cruel oppressor. Whether Judah saw Babylon as a potential saviour, or as an oppressor from whom she would never escape, she was wrong!

Mark 10:15,16 - Receiving the kingdom

10:15,16

So in order to enter the kingdom we need to receive it as a child, ie having no sense of our own self-importance. We can get very sentimental when we talk about entering the kingdom of God as a child. This is all well and good, but we should also remember that Jesus said this to the disciples, to men who would face death for the sake of the gospel. We may face very testing times in life. In the West it is quite possible that we will face a period of direct persecution. If this does happen, then we will only be in the same position as many, many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world. But if it does happen we will need boldness and courage, but we will also need to know that God is our Father and we are His children. It is worth remembering that the time when Jesus used the phrase “Abba, Father” in prayer was in Gethsemane. Again, we love to sentimentalise this phrase, but we should remember that in the times of severest testing we need to pray to Abba, Father.

Isaiah 21:3-5 - My heart falters

21:3,4

Isaiah is not just a prophetic newsreader, he is intimately involved in the prophecies. He feels pain in his body over the things he sees and foretells. Isaiah sees the scale of the destruction to come. In Bible times the heart was to do with the intellect as well as emotions, so when we read of the heart we must not think that this is somehow detached from the mind. Isaiah had hoped for some relief for Judah, but things were not heading that way.

21:5

Having recovered from his own feelings of anguish, Isaiah continues his prophecy. The Babylonian officers were at ease, complacent in their apparent security, but Isaiah calls on them to prepare for war. We should be careful never to go along with the so-called wisdom of the age. The world can seem so sure of itself, and it can seem so convincing. Yet most of the time the world is taking rubbish, and its lack of knowledge and understanding will soon be shown up for what it is.

Mark 10:13,14 - Let the little children come to me

10:13

We are now on somewhat safer ground! Jesus welcoming little children. This incident is much loved and oft repeated. It focuses again on the disciples (wrong) attitude towards others. Earlier (Mark 9:38-41) is what their attitude towards other “Christians” was. Here it is their attitude towards children. Many other wrong attitudes are highlighted at various points in the gospels. This is actually one of the best arguments for the authenticity of the gospels. If they were made up it is almost certain that they would show the apostles in a very positive light, As it is the gospels portray the apostles as a bunch of numpties, well not quite, but their many weaknesses are highlighted.

10:14

Jesus rebukes the disciples, He was indignant about their attitude. The kingdom belongs to such as these. In the world there are many individuals and groups of people who get written off, or are at least considered to be of less importance than others. The kingdom of God is not like this. First, anyone who comes in repentance and faith is welcomed with open arms, secondly the kingdom will actively seek out the rejected. And thirdly, any worldly wealth or status we may have counts for nothing in the kingdom (in terms of making us “favourites”, we should use any wealth and position that we might have for good purposes).

Isaiah 21:1,2 - An invader comes from the land of terror

21:1,2

Babylon was to be destroyed twice, in 689 BC and 539 BC. The 689 BC defeat is the one of immediate relevance, though the 539 BC is more in view in the latter half of Isaiah. At the time Babylon was captured by Assyria in 703 BC. There were some in Judah who had hoped Babylon might help them against Assyria. So in Isaiah there are two natures to the anti-Babylon prophecies. Here the message to Judah is that they are a vain hope of salvation. Later the message to Israel is that your oppressor will be defeated.

Elam was a recurrent source of trouble for Babylon, though Elam would eventually be defeated by Assyria. The Medes were instrumental in the final defeat of Babylon in 539 BC, apparently with help from Elam.

Mark 10:10-12 - Adultery and Divorce - Part 2

10:10-12 continued

There is then the most difficult of questions. Should the church allow remarriage of divorcees? First of all, we need to accept that there is not a nice neat, clean and fair solution. Sin complicates things beyond measure. Whatever we do there will be times when a church marries a couple who should not be married, and there will be times when a church refuses to marry a couple who should get married. A key factor is that the primary responsibility lies with the couple. The church can, and should, give guidance, but ultimate responsibility lies with the couple in choosing to get married.

Well what if one or both members of a couple are divorcee, is marriage allowed? I would say that the general principle is that if there is true repentance, or the divorcee was not the guilty party, then remarriage is allowed, but this is highly problematic. The primary difficulty is that only God can judge the hearts of men and women accurately. We could restrict remarriage to the case where adultery or abuse did occur. In those cases there is clear evidence that the divorcee was the victim of divorce. That is the advantage of such a policy. The disadvantage is that, especially in the age we live in, if the church is being effective, many people will come in to the church from all sorts of sexual backgrounds. So what do we do? You could end up refusing remarriage to someone, but then allowing someone else who has been sleeping around with all and sundry to get married. Refusing to marry anyone with any sexual history is unworkable, and probably against the gospel. On the other hand, any allowing of divorce can threaten the sanctity of marriage. I am going to bring this discussion to a close now. The situation is horrendously complicated (that’s the fruit of sin), so we are not going to find an easy answer. The key is God’s heart and purpose in creating marriage. And we are dealing with people, and with a gospel that does have the power to bring true repentance and changes of heart. But the heart is deceitful above all things, and some people will deceive themselves and others. If we search for a legalistic solution we will not find one, and any one that we do adopt may “solve” some problems, but will also cause harm in other cases.

Isaiah 20:1-6 - How then can we escape?

20:1,2

If we take this chapter on its own it doesn’t quite make sense. However, if we look at 19 and 20 as a whole then it has a chiastic structure. So the future blessings we have just read about form the middle part, with the first part of chapter 19 and chapter 20 forming judgement passages which sandwich the blessings. In the chiastic structure it is the central element that is the primary focus. The prophecy is given a clear historical anchor, Sargon captured Ashdod in 711 BC. Isaiah is told to walk about naked! However, it may be that he was not completely naked.

20:3-6

Isaiah had to walk about naked for three years! This was a “sign and portent” against Egypt and Cush. Now we just had great blessings before this, so why this stuff here? The defeat of Egypt would come about and so demonstrate the veracity of Isaiah’s words, likewise his words of blessing would also come about in due time. Isaiah's nakedness was a sign of what would happen to the people of Egypt and Cush, they too would be carted off naked by the Assyrians. At the time Judah was contemplating seeking help from Egypt. Isaiah’s prophecy is a warning that such a course of action would be very foolish indeed.

So what we have here is that one day Egypt will become part of God’s people, greatly loved by God. In the meantime, Judah must not make alliance with her, or seek help from her. May be we can draw parallels with some groups today. One day many Muslims will be saved, but only by trusting in Christ. Likewise, many people who identify as LGBT will be saved, but only by repentance and faith in Christ. In the meantime, we must not “make alliance” with them, to do so would be a foolish thing for any church to do.

Mark 10:10-12 - Adultery and divorce - Part 1

10:10-12

The disciples are rather taken aback by Jesus teaching. In Matthew;s account (Matt 19:10) they declare that it is better not to marry! Jesus then says that if someone, whether man or woman, gets divorced and remarries then they have committed adultery. To be more precise, commits adultery against his wife (or husband in the case of a woman getting divorced). So what are we to make of all this, and how are we to apply it today? Before getting into the meat of all this, let’s first note the equality that Jesus assigns to the man and the woman. People glibly accuse the Bible of misogyny or patriarchy. Such people do not realise how radical the gospel teaching on male and female was in the equality of importance it assigned to men and women. Indeed, one of the reasons the gospel appealed in particular to women was the high value it placed upon them, and the high level of respect it taught men to have for women.

So, back to divorce. First of all, if we treat this in a legalistic fashion then I believe we are making a big mistake. Jesus was not so much laying down laws, as reminding us of Godly principles. And let’s remind ourselves of the context. Consider what the Hillel school (the easy-divorce crew) were doing. They would divorce their wife because they fancied a younger woman, they would do so claiming they were acting line with the Law of Moses, and so were a good Jew. When Jesus talks about adultery this is what He is addressing. He is saying to the easy-divorcer who was claiming to be a good Jew that he was in fact an adulterer, and a hypocrite, and worthy of all the penalties of the Law associated with that. And the same would apply to a woman if she sought to get a new man via the divorce route.

Next, there are cases where divorce is allowed, in the sense that it is a necessary evil. Jesus said the Law was given because “your hearts were hard”, it is not meant to be a desirable or normal action. It should be considered like amputating a limb. It is highly undesirable, but sometimes the infection is so bad that it is the only option. Because of our sin sometimes divorce is necessary. Now, this does not mean one partner has to divorce the other if the other partner has committed adultery. There can be repentance and forgiveness, and if that is possible then it is a good route to go down, but sometimes divorce is necessary. There are some who apply this allowance only to adultery, I think this is unduly legalistic and misses the point. For instance, if one partner is abusive, especially physically abusive, to the other, then I would say that divorce is permissible, maybe even essential.

Isaiah 19:23-25 - There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria

19:23

This is true peace between nations. For centuries Egypt and Assyria were at war with each other at many and various times. In this future there would be a highway between the two, and the purpose of the highway would not be for the transport of soldiers and weapons of war, but so that they could worship the Lord together. True peace between peoples, whether individuals or between nations, can only be found in Christ.

19:24

“In that day Israel will be the third”. It almost seems as if Israel has been demoted, but we should actually see it as an equality. For much of the Old Testament it looks as if it is Israel and then everyone else, and so often everyone else is an enemy. This is not the final state. Today we see many enemies of Christ and the church. We see militant atheism and secularism in the West, we see militant Islamism and Hinduism in parts of the world. A time will come when many from these groups will join together in worshiping Christ the Lord. God’s plan and purpose is that people worship Him. When Egypt, Assyria and Israel worship the Lord together it will be a blessing upon the earth (Rom 8:22).

19:25

“The Lord Almighty will bless them saying “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance”. Just consider the enormity of these words, given first in a time of conflict between all three. God’s purpose is to bless all peoples, all nations. This will only come about through Christ.

Mark 10:6-9 - In the beginning ...

10:6-9

Jesus then points them right back to Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. Creation is so important, Genesis 1-3 sets the scene, provides the foundation for the rest of the Bible, and for our world view. In the LGBT debates it is often said that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. This is complete nonsense. Genesis 1 and 2 provide the foundation of the Christian view of gender and sexuality, and Jesus positively affirmed it. We were created male and female. Now if we are looking purely at the divorce issue in narrow terms Jesus did not need to mention this, but He did. Why? Part of the reason is probably because male views of sexuality tend to denigrate women, to treat them as sex objects. God created us male and female, in His image. We are equally important. “For this reason ...” Gen 2:23 is where Adam speaks of Eve as being “flesh of my flesh”, ie man and woman are meant to ideally complement each other. Marriage is not a contract, it is a holy institution, and it is not to be messed with.

Isaiah 19:21,22 - The Lord will make Himself known to the Egyptians

19:21

“So the Lord will make Himself known” The global vision of Isaiah is amazing, and something that could not be produced by the culture, but only by the Spirit of God. It is only God who would have thought of making Himself known to a people who were the enemies of Israel, who had no interest in knowing God. This is preparing us for a later prophecy of Isaiah. It should also give us hope for our nation, a nation that has no interest in knowing God. That does not mean that God has no interest in knowing them! The Egyptians would turn to the Lord and worship Him, and make sacrifices to Him.

19:22

How could this happen? Well the route would not be easy. “The Lord will strike them with a plague, He will strike them and heal them”. There is nothing automatic about this. In Moses’ day God struck them with ten plagues and Egypt did not turn to God. In Revelation we read of peoples being struck with various plagues, yet they would not turn to God. But this does not mean a people can never turn to God. We should pray for our nations, we should pray for a spirit of repentance to come upon our land.

Mark 10:3-5 - Because your hearts are hardened

10:3

So how does Jesus respond? First note that He does not shy away from the matter. Why is He bold enough to do this? Because He has confidence in the word of God, and He sees to the heart of the matter, both the heart of what God says and intends, and what is in the heart of the people, especially the Hillel school. So often Christian leaders today give mealy mouthed answers when questioned on LGBT issues, not wanting to “offend” people, so afraid of being accused of having some sort of phobia, or being bigoted. Jesus understood God’s ways, and knew that His ways were best for man, the same applies in all matters involving sexual morality. Next Jesus points them to what Moses said. Now they thought they knew what Moses said, and they did know the words, but had no idea of the real meaning.

10:4,5

So the Pharisees quoted the words, but the words had been interpreted as a sanctioning of divorce. Jesus tells them that they were given “because of your hardness of heart”. They were a law to mitigate the effects of our sinfulness. Marriage is meant to be for life, but because we are sinful there will be times when that does not happen. Women, in particular, could suffer really badly if they were just abandoned, just dumped. The law was there to give a degree of protection to women.