Isaiah 3:1-12
1 For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah
The stock and the store,
The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;
2 The mighty man and the man of war,
The judge and the prophet,
And the diviner and the elder;
3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the skillful artisan,
And the expert enchanter.
4 "I will give children to be their princes,
And babes shall rule over them.
5 The people will be oppressed,
Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;
The child will be insolent toward the elder,
And the base toward the honorable."
6 When a man takes hold of his brother
In the house of his father, saying,
"You have clothing;
You be our ruler,
And let these ruins be under your power,"
7 In that day he will protest, saying,
"I cannot cure your ills,
For in my house is neither food nor clothing;
Do not make me a ruler of the people."
8 For Jerusalem stumbled,
And Judah is fallen,
Because their tongue and their doings
Are against the LORD,
To provoke the eyes of His glory.
9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them,
And they declare their sin as Sodom;
They do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have brought evil upon themselves.
10 "Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,
For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
For the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths."
Judah and Jerusalem stumbled in their sin as they took heed to ungodly counsel. They stumbled in word and deed against the Lord and insulted his glory as they provoked His wrath for their disobedience of sin. He responded by taking away their livelihood of food and water, of their army and prophets and judges because they refused to listen to God’s word. They were given rulers who were immature and unable to lead them as a result, and their children became disrespectful and disobedient themselves to them as retribution. They desperately tried to find anyone else to rule them and set things right again, but left God out and were left as sheep without a shepherd to guide them since they turned a deaf ear to God’s word from anyone, least of all the leaders which had been put over them in the past. They stumbled and fell in all they said and did as a result. Sin overtook and overthrew them. Yes, their faces told the story as of the sins of Sodom against God’s glory. They even pridefully paraded their sin and brought evil on their own heads, just as today’s society is doing. Yet God used Isaiah to remind those who sought to live according to His word that it would be well with them. To those continuing in the sin of unrighteousness, He said it would not go well but that they would receive their promised recompense as judgment for their words and deeds against Him. These chose children as rulers who were unrighteous and unable to lead His people in anything true or good, destroying their way with corruption and sin’s consequences. This warning is appropriate for today as well in that those living in opposition to God’s righteousness (Romans 10:3) and setting up their own standards of right and wrong as a faux morality, these lead people astray from God and into judgment. The righteous point them back to God and His word, but the rulers are spiritually immature and unqualified to follow rightly. There is nothing new under the sun as the preacher told us (Ecclesiastes 1:9). May we then learn from these examples to follow the Lord and not the unrighteous rulers which men put over themselves that we do not join in following their words and deeds leading them to stumble into judgment. Amen.
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