Last week’s study brought us to a point of confrontation. God’s wayward, wicked, and wasting-away people are being called to task for their sin. Yet, there remains a promise of peace and inheritance: God’s very own holy mountain is the resting place and refuge of those who will turn to Him.
At the same time, the Scriptures have much to say about God’s holy mountain. Psalm 24 makes it clear that only the one with clean hands and a pure heart – who does not lift up his soul to what is false – only such a person can dwell on God’s holy mountain.
Our passage today traces the handiwork of God’s grace that enables ones with unclean hands and impure hearts to dwell on God’s holy mountain. Read on!
(A) Contrition, not contempt (Isa 57:14-15)
There is a sense of urgency in the text — “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction…” (Isa 57:14). We are meant to feel it, and feel jolted into activity. At the same time, we’re also meant to feel a sense of familiarity: Wasn’t there some other construction project of like manner, already proclaimed?
The answer is yes.
We learn from Isaiah 40:3-5 that the first "building project" happened to “prepare the way of the LORD,” and make straight every path. Now this activity starts to make sense.
God’s sinful, idolatrous, wayward, wicked, and wasting-away people have hope of returning to Him, because He has first made a way to them! The way of the LORD is paved for the return of the LORD’s people.
So what are these obstacles that would otherwise inhibit the people’s return to the LORD? What stands in the way, that has to be removed with such urgency? Our study last week taught us as much. These are obstacles of a deeply spiritual nature. These are obstacles nestled in every human heart. These are obstacles of sin. And God issues the call for such obstacles to be removed. Put another way, this is a call for spiritual preparation!
It is helpful to pause and consider what you think are the biggest obstacles that hinder your return to God. Is it the chaos of the world outside? The difficulties of the economy and your job? The lack of fulfilment you long for in your days, or your relationships? If only I had these obstacles removed, then I would return to God!
Christian friends, banish such lines of thinking. Our greatest obstacle is sin, and we are going to read on to see how this obstacle has already been removed.
All of this turns on the words of “the ONE who is high and lifted up”. It’s interesting that Isaiah describes God in 3 vivid ways: “high and lifted up, inhabiting eternity, whose name is holy” (Isa 57:15).
Before we get into the content of His speech, have you paused to consider what these descriptors mean? The first two obviously point to His transcendence. He is not like us! The Creator is above both in His glory and His very being. This means that unless He chooses to reveal Himself to us, we would have no way to know what He is like. But revealed Himself to us He has, and His name is Holy – perfect in all His ways, and perfectly possessing everything good. His holiness also tells us that He is divinely distinct from His creatures – we should not expect Him to be like, or act like, what we see and know in the world.
The content of His speech drives home how distinct He is from us. A God who is so high and lifted up dwells with the contrite and lowly! There is one sense where this is marvellous beyond understanding –- why would a God who is so transcendent dwell with ones who are so abased? At the same time, there is a sense here this is entirely appropriate — a God who is so magnificent can only justly dwell with those who know their rightful place. Only those who recognise that God is God, and we are not, will find a dwelling with Him.
Notice also that when God dwells with such a people, He gives life where there would otherwise be death. His dwelling does not leave us unchanged — it revives.
As you read this, pause. Consider your relationship with “contrition” and being of “lowly” estate. Do you brand yourself and build your identity around contrary forces? Do you struggle with contrition? Do you fear that acknowledging your sin and evil will only lead to condemnation before God? Recognise that in God’s world, the way up is down. Only those who recognise their lowly estate have any chance of ascend God’s holy hill. And then go further to recognise just how God dwell with the contrite.
We must remember that Isaiah 53 comes before our text today, and Isaiah 53 proclaims the LORD’s anointed servant who is crushed (lit. contrite) on our behalf for our sins. Christian friends, Jesus Christ — the LORD’s anointed servant — was the only One who has ever lived who had no need of contrition. But bearing sin and scoffing rude, He was crushed and condemned in our place so that we would be able to recognise our evil and not be crushed. He was crushed so that we can be contrite.
(B) Comfort, not contention (Isa 57:16-21)
Jesus had to take on our sin in its full measure because our problem goes far deeper than we tend to estimate. But Isaiah 57:16-19a dispels any illusion about sin’s extent. They show us, without a shadow of doubt, that the “heart” level problem of God’s people is that their hearts are obstinately turned away from God!
There is a sickness in the human heart that rejects God, receives His chastisement and judgment, and then persists in rejecting God (Isa 57:17). This is what theologians sometimes refer to as Total, or Radical, Depravity. It refers to our heart’s desperate condition, where we are hell-bent on rebelling against God at every turn of the journey. The book of Ephesians builds on this idea, explaining that we were “dead in our transgressions”. How can a dead heart make itself come alive?
It can’t. And only God can heal. This is where the “holiness”, or the “other-ness” of God comes into view again. He is not only different from us in His moral perfection. He is also different from us in His compassion. comfort. We look upon wickedness and lust (v8). God looks upon us and promises to lead and restore, despite our persistent rebellion!
His healing creates the fruit of the lips and brings comfort to those who mourn their own sin: that is, the sacrifice of contrition and praise that is pleasing in God’s sight. Where these people were once a people of unclean lips (c.f. Isa 6:5), they now find themselves purified from within, that their mouth would bear good fruit from the abundance of a revived heart.
The end result of this healing is peace twice proclaimed. Such repetition is the Hebrew way for describing in the superlative. Peace is now completed and total. There is true peace, lasting peace, and secure peace. How is this possible? For peace is now offered by God Himself! From this peace with God flows forth peace of every other measure. We are to consider again how we value and treasure such peace. Is it precious to you today? Do you recognise how it has been secured and won on your behalf, despite your undeserving state?
Unlike the ones who find their peace with God, the wicked dwell in turbulent times and live amidst choppy waters that spew forth uncleanliness. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. Wickedness here must be understood as the opposite of a contrite and lowly spirit, where its climate is a forever-turbulence. For God Himself stands against them, and it is God Himself to whom they will one day give an account. While the righteous who take refuge in God enter into peace even as they enter into death, there is only the promise of yet more turbulence after death for the wicked.
Friends, beware the haughtiness that lurks in every human heart! And cling to the contrition that is made available today by grace.