Why God Hates Sin

“The Lord sent a message against Jacob; it came against Israel. All the people — Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria — will know it. They will say with pride and arrogance: “The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” The Lord has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him and stirred up his enemies. Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have consumed Israel with open mouths. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike. The people did not turn to Him who struck them; they did not seek the Lord of Hosts. So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day. The head is the elder, the honored one; the tail is the prophet, the lying teacher. The leaders of the people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up. Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over Israel’s young men and has no compassion on its fatherless and widows, for everyone is a godless evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike. For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets so that they go up in a column of smoke. The land is scorched by the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and the people are like fuel for the fire. No one has compassion on his brother. They carve meat on the right, but they are still hungry; they have eaten on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one eats the flesh of his own arm. Manasseh is with Ephraim, and Ephraim with Manasseh; together, both are against Judah. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike. Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless. What will you do on the day of punishment when devastation comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your wealth? There will be nothing to do except crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike.” (Isaiah 9:8-10:4 HCSB)

Brief outline: 1: National disaster (9:8-12); 2: Political collapse (9:13-17); 3: Social anarchy (9:18-21); 4: Moral perversion (10:1-4)

Key phrase: “In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike (vs. 9:12, 17, 21, and 10:4)

Devotional thought: Until we honestly confess “I am the chief of sinners” we will never be able to confidently say that “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”

One of the hardest things in life is to stand back and watch someone you love make a decision that you know is wrong or bad for them. You gave them some insight and instruction, but they refused to listen and the choice they’re making is not going to turn out like they hope or want. It hurts you, but they must make the choice themselves and learn from the consequences. It’s hard to do, isn’t it? You plead. You cajole. You do everything you can to persuade them, but it is their choice to make. Is your decision to stand back and let them choose – and suffer the consequences – the result of your hatred or your love for them? Ultimately, I suspect it is because you deeply love them.

Winston Churchill’s final volume of his history on the Second World War has this theme: “The great democracies have triumphed, and so were able to resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.” Oh how often we see the error of our ways but so quickly return to making the same choices. We never seem to learn life’s lessons. ”Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.“ (Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV)

Over the last few weeks we have been confronted by the incredible mercy of our loving LORD. Not only is He willing to redeem us, He comes and does so Himself – Immanuel, God with or among us. He leaves His throne of glory where everyone honors and obeys Him and He takes on human flesh just so we can know His mercy, love and forgiveness. ”The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.“ (John 1:14 HCSB)

This week, we come face to face with the “angry” God of the Old Testament. It is far too easy to avoid this aspect of God’s character or to downplay it. To be honest, it is one of the reasons that I wanted to avoid preaching through Isaiah. You simply can’t avoid Him in this book.

In fact, we even try to hide God’s anger “issues” behind the character and cross of Jesus, the very One who came to reveal God to us in loving ways. However, the anger of God towards sin cannot be hidden behind the cross of Christ or the kind and loving words of Jesus because they are the very fulfillment and expression of His anger towards our sin. It is only when we are confronted by God’s ANGER towards sin that the person of Jesus and His death on that cross even make sense!

Without the reality of OUR sin and God’s intense anger towards it the birth, life and death of Jesus – the divine/human Son of God – is completely unnecessary and His story makes no sense.

In this week’s passage, we are going to look at the progressive nature of sin and the reasons why God’s anger is justified. We closed last week with the incredible promise of Immanuel and the fact that “the ZEAL of the LORD of Hosts will DO this!” God will accomplish all that is necessary for the redemption of mankind through the promised child (9:6-7). We turn quickly from the emphatic statement that God’s zeal will see this promise fulfilled to a “word” or message against Jacob or Israel (the northern tribes – referred to here as Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria).

The word of the Lord sent through Isaiah is one of intense judgment resulting in total national destruction due to their sin. It begins with a judgment against “all the people” because of their pride and arrogance. It is unclear whether the bricks that have “fallen” and the trees that have been “cut down” are due to a natural disaster, like an earthquake, or the result of an external invasion. It would appear that this is referencing a historically unknown attack from “Aram from the east and Philistia from the west” as mentioned in verse twelve.

You may wonder why I reference their pride as the cause for God’s judgment. Isaiah says they respond with pride and arrogance towards God’s judgment: “bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stones; sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” In other words, this is not a big deal for them. This is just an opportunity to demonstrate their self-sufficiency and lack of need for God. They will rebuild the fallen brick structures with nicer cut stone buildings and replant cedars in place of those common sycamore trees.

Isaiah points out, “the people did not turn to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts. So the LORD cut off Israel’s head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day.” He then tells them that the head God cut off is the elder, the honored one and the tail is the prophet, the lying teacher. So we move from a national disaster that left the cities in shambles to a complete political and spiritual collapse across the nation. God removes both political and religious leadership from the people.

But why? Why remove their leaders? Because their leaders mislead them. Those being mislead are being “swallowed up” by their leaders or confused by their lies and poor leadership. I think it is interesting that the head is the elder and the tail is the false/lying prophet. Instead of God’s word being what leads God’s people, the head wags the tail, or the poor leaders are dictating and telling the prophets what to say and it is all lies. True leadership doesn’t look back to see where the people want to go, it leads them where they need to go. True leadership doesn’t tell the people what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.

When spiritual leaders become the tail being wagged by the dog then we’ve stopped being God’s spokesmen and have become man’s. When we only tickle men’s ears with what they want to hear we are not speaking the truth, we are speaking lies from the pits of hell. When we stop seeking and speaking the truth of God’s Word then we are nothing but false prophets. When leaders mislead then God denounces them, judges them and removes them from leadership. When God’s prophets speak lies instead of God’s word then God denounces them, judges them and removes them.

The next verse is a hard one to read and a harder one to share with you. There are some things scripture tells us that God rejoices over and He deeply loves and defends. He rejoices over the young men and He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow. But not today. Today, He doesn’t rejoice over Israel’s young men and He has no compassion on its fatherless and widows. Why? “For EVERYONE is a godless evildoer, every mouth speaks folly.”

It is hard for us to hear words like that coming from our God. But until we are willing to see the depth of sin that pervades our own lives and the lives of everyone around us, we cannot and will not understand or embrace the just cause for God’s wrath upon sin. That’s why we bristle at the idea of an angry God. We clearly recognize the evil and destructive nature of Hitler, Stalin, Manson, or any number of others like them. However, we struggle to see and admit the sin in our own lives and of those we love and cherish.

And yet, deep down I think we know it’s true. And… He says it again, “In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike!”

After political and religious collapse comes social anarchy: “For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets to that they go up in a column of smoke.” When we no longer have good leadership, a just political system or holy religious leaders, then social collapse is not far behind. When this begins to happen we lose all sense of compassion for others and our physical needs and desires become our only driving force. Nobody is safe and nothing is sacred. We even turn against our own families, our own flesh and blood.

Once we’ve reached this stage of collapse you’d think we would listen to reason. You’d think we would be more willing to hear God’s plea to turn and fall before Him. But no, not us. Instead, “…they are still not satisfied. Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.” We not only destroy our neighbors, our brothers and even our own families, we actually begin to self-destruct. We pursue our own desires to the point that we even begin to consume ourselves, in the process. We abandon those things that give life meaning and hope in our pursuit of personal satisfaction and supposed happiness. All the while, we’re blind to what we’re doing to others and to ourselves, until it’s too late. And yet…

“In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike!”

In the final scene, we’ve moved from a national disaster to political and religious collapse. Then from political and religious collapse to a complete and total social collapse. From the social collapse and anarchy we move into the final stage: complete moral perversion. Once we no longer have a just system or righteous religious leaders and plunge into social anarchy, then we begin to rewrite our ethics and justify our actions with laws that soothe our conscience and morals that assuage our guilt.

Most people cannot just live in a state of social or even mental and moral anarchy, we have to make things work logically and be morally in line with our conscience. So, we simply change the rules to fit our actions and desired outcomes. If we recognize that something we desperately want is religiously, socially and morally unacceptable, we can either submit to the religious and social mores in which we live or we can alter them to fit our desires. That’s where we find ourselves in this final scene of God’s anger towards Israel’s sin. Instead of being changed by Isaiah’s presentation of God’s authoritative word to Israel, the people reject God’s word and follow their own path – a path filled with sin and rebellious, destructive choices.

To be blunt, this is also where we find ourselves. Instead of looking at this from a national level, we need to look at it from a “church” perspective or level. While God may be dissatisfied with the current political, moral and social condition of America, we must recognize that God does not deal with “us” in the same way He dealt with Israel. Let me say this bluntly, no matter how much we may consider America to be based on Judeo/Christian beliefs and values, it is not a theocracy and cannot, MUST no be equated to the biblical nation of Israel. God’s promises to Israel are NOT promises to America.

However, I do believe that God’s promises to Israel are promises that extend to the “church” or to the children of Abraham by faith. So, the modern church filled with many, many non-Jewish disciples has been grafted into the biblical Israel or “people of Abraham’s promise/covenant” and are God’s people, by adoption. But, we are also subject to God’s judgment in the same way the people of this passage are subject to God’s judgment. Notice, our focal passage ends with a series of questions.

”What will you do on the day of punishment when devastation comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your wealth?“ (Isaiah 10:3 HCSB)

For just a moment, God leaves those questions hanging there for them to consider. But then He answers them: ”There will be nothing to do except crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike.“ (Isaiah 10:4 HCSB)

The question being posed to them is one that we must consider. What will we do on the day of punishment? Who will we run to for help? Where will we leave our wealth?

There’s an old saying that reminds us that most things are just temporary and only two things are really certain, death and taxes. We must all face the issue of what we owe in taxes and the question of what happens when we die. For most Americans, the issue of taxes is addressed each year about this time. April 15, tax day. Are you ready? Have you filed or requested an extension? If not, you’d better get busy. It’s almost time.

But what about that other question, that one about death? Scripture tells us that when we die we will all face a time of judgment. We will stand before our creator and give an account of lives to Him. That’s where this entire passage points! What will you do on that day? Who will you run to? What will you trust in, then?

And yet… “In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike!”

Does God have the right to be angry about our sin? Does He have the right to pour out His wrath on man’s rebellion? I started out talking about how hard it is to watch someone you love make poor life decisions. Maybe you’ve experienced this, personally. If God is, well, truly God and knows and understands everything about His creation, made us in His image and loves us like scripture says He does then why wouldn’t He be angry at what misleads and tries to destroy us? If you knew that someone or something was intentionally trying to mislead and destroy the object of your love then you would be angry, too. Right?

This is where it gets difficult for us. Sin is to live in rebellion towards God and to reject His love towards us. Sin, at its essence, is to say that you don’t trust God and He doesn’t desire what is best for you. That you know better what you really need than God does. It is to say to God: You’re not “in charge” of me. I am! I reject what you say, what you want and I choose to pursue my own desires and my own path in life. I know what’s best for me, you don’t!

When we make that choice, we also choose the consequences. God will do everything He can to bring us back into His love, into His will, onto His path because He loves us that much. He loves us SO much, He gave is only Son that we might be saved, not only from our sinful actions but, mostly, from ourselves (see John 3). In this situation, we are our own worst enemy. We have so much pride in our own ability, our own knowledge, our own understanding and desires that we cannot see how we are destroying ourselves. So, God’s hand is raised… in loving discipline to draw, to guide and even to drive us back to Himself. But why? Because of His deep, deep love for us.

Let me just leave you with His words. Words meant to draw you back to Himself:

”For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God. “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.” (John 3:16-21 HCSB)

Don’t walk, run to Him… His arms are wide open awaiting your return.