Bringing the light of Jesus Christ into a sin-darkened world. This is the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. Hello, my name is Ben Fordham, and I invite you to join us now as we study God's Word together. Welcome to the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and thank you for tuning in. As we look to the Word of God today, I would like to draw your attention to the book of Isaiah, chapter 32, and we will look at verses 9 through 20. The verses before us today give a juxtaposition of warnings and promised good. The Lord, through Isaiah, calls upon the women of Judah, who are at ease, to rise up and hear that trouble is coming their way. We must understand the context of these verses reveals the state of Judah prior to the Assyrian campaign. Judah had become wealthy, and the men had become greedy, and in their gain the women began to adorn themselves luxuriously and live lives of ease. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying comforts or even having luxuries, the first thing that a woman is commanded to adorn herself with is good works. There is that old misogynistic Apostle Paul saying it in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. And like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety. not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. The godly women here are not marked by their beautiful attire, but by their beautiful works. It is a true saying that men build or break things, but women make things beautiful. And the woman is the glory of the man. And the way this is manifest is not just in how good they look, but rather, firstly, in how well they do. One of the things we notice in the time of Judah is that the women have been marked not by godly living, but by gaudy attire. Not by diligent labor for their family, but by living a life of ease. Not by using their resources to help the poor and oppressed, but for taking ease and living in luxury. What will change all this? Or rather, who will change all this? We see the end of the chapter tell us that a great reversal is going to occur. So what is the source of this great reversal? We see the Spirit poured out and we see a thorough change in the people of Judah. the state of their hearts, and then the state of their land. Every group in Judah has contributed to the wicked state of the nation. Top to bottom, left to right, men and women, and all will be turned by the spirit of the Lord. If the Lord can do this to the nation of Judah, is there a reason that he cannot do it to ours? And what lessons can we learn from the warnings that have been given and the great grace that has been shown to the nation? What things can we see here that we should be thankful for? Let us look to our text. The text, Isaiah 32, verses nine through 20. Rise up, ye women that are at ease, hear my voice, ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women, for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease, be troubled, ye careless ones, strip you and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. Because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be left. The forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, A joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks, Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness be a fruitful field, And the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness remain in the fruitful field, And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. When it shall hail coming down on the forest, the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. Beginning again in verse nine, we read, rise up ye women that are at ease, hear my voice, ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech. This portion of the chapter moves from the revival that was promised to warn of the afflictions that will be brought by Assyria. The chastening that is going to be happening here is promised against the women who are at ease. These are women who definitely do not fit the type described in Proverbs chapter 31. These women are not diligent, in other words, but they are at ease. They are not living lives of productivity, but lives of pure laziness. Now they get up and do things. They don't have to rise up from doing nothing. They're not constantly laying down, but they are constantly laid back. They've been living lavishly and without a care in the world, but this is soon going to come to an end. They're told to rise up. The accusation that is made against the women of Judah was made all the way back in chapter 3, as we read back there, verses 16 through 26. Their prosperous lifestyles had led them to pride and idleness. An apt description of this is found in Ezekiel 16 when describing the women of Sodom. Ezekiel 16, 49 and 50. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they, that is, the daughters, were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away, as I saw good. We've heard this phrase, at ease, elsewhere in the scriptures. We read in Amos the phrase, at ease in Zion, and it is used there in the same context. Having lived lives of great prosperity, these women have trusted in riches and have not been grieved by sin. They have lived lives of luxury and abundance and loved their abundance and treated their abundance as though their abundance was God. Verse 10. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women, for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come, The warning is that the time of ease for these women is now over, and they will now be troubled for many days and years. Assyria would come in and desolate the land, and they would lose their luxury, their husbands, their children, and the vintage of their wine and grains. They would lose their means or supply of food. We've read the same warning about the agricultural impact in the previous chapters regarding the invasion of Assyria. And so there is nothing new here, except the women are warned that times of trouble and not ease are ahead. Verse 11, tremble ye women that are at ease, be troubled ye careless ones, strip you and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. The call here is for these women to stop being at ease. They need to be trembling in fear for the Lord is coming in judgment. They should be troubled about the sin around them instead of careless. Where there is ease, there shall be now mourning and sorrow for sin. There should be much prayer and fasting. The description here is similar to other places in scripture where we hear of repenting in sackcloth and in ashes. And so the command to strip bare and gird up sackcloth should not be strange to us. The men have been commanded to do it, and now the women are commanded to get rid of their fancy apparel and luxurious adornments and trade them in for sackcloth. They shall lament for the teats, verse 12, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. These women will lament and long for the former prosperity. Gone will be the teats that provided sustenance, for they would not produce in the time of famine like they had before. The blessings to provide for feeding children from their own bodies and the dairy from cows providing milk would be gone. The supply of pleasant field and fruitful vines would be taken away. The pleasures of food and wine would now be replaced with starvation and merely eating to survive. We don't realize exactly how much we enjoy the fruits of agriculture until there is a famine. We don't realize how much we eat for pleasure until we have no food. Verse 13. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. The land flowing with milk and honey will now be overgrown with thorns and briars. The land will be made desolate by her conquerors. cities are going to be emptied and the land which had been fruitfully farmed would now be overgrown because there would be nobody to till and to keep and tend to the land. The houses that had been inhabited would now be empty. the invaders having driven the men and women that occupied them away, the houses would be left with no inhabitants. And so the uninhabited houses would be overgrown by thorns and briars as well. The joyous city here seems to be a general description of the fenced cities that were taken in Judah. Places and houses of joy in joyous cities were now going to be uninhabited and desolate. houses not of joy but of grief. Verse 14. Because the palaces shall be forsaken, this multitude of the city shall be left. The forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks. Princes and governors' homes would be forsaken. These palaces, these estates of the wealthy, would be emptied as the armies of Assyria pass through. all those cities would be overrun and decimated. The fortresses and the towers and the houses would be emptied, and it seems that wild beasts, wild animals, would make these their new pasture. The multitude of the city is going to leave. They have left. They are going to be gone. Note that the phrase forever is used. This is not to indicate eternal desolation, but we will find the scriptures often use this to denote a time until some judgment is ended or some other bound God has placed is reached. In other words, don't assume because the word forever is used that it means eternity. The Bible has uses of forever that are limited in duration, so we must always consider the context. Verse 15, until the spirit be poured out or poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. This verse is the limit of forever in the previous verse. This desolation is determined to continue until the spirit be poured on us from on high. that is poured on the Israelites, or the Judah, the men of Judah, women of Judah, from on high. The trouble will end when the Lord restores and revives the land of Judah. The time described is one where the wilderness that had been created by the Assyrian conquest would again be a fruitful field, both literally and figuratively. Judah had been a wilderness spiritually and, by judgment, would now be fruitful spiritually and prosper. The Assyrians, who had been a fruitful field, would now be made like a forest, wild and desolate. This is a reversal of fortune to come, as the Lord is gracious to His people and deals with their enemies. Verse 16, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. A time of revival would come in the land of Judah that had once been a wilderness. It is going to become a fruitful field. Righteousness will remain in the fruitful field under King Hezekiah. A great revival will come into this place where the women have been warned of coming judgment. The judgment in this verse is right judgment coming into the land that was a wilderness and making it a fruitful field. Righteousness and wise judgment abound in Judah and Jerusalem again, and the revival is a great one. and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. We have in this verse a good principle. Righteousness produces peace. Strife comes from lusts we have to fulfill our own desires sinfully. See James chapter four. Where we have righteousness, there will be no enmity or strife, no unresolved conflict, and there will be tranquility. Proverbs 14 verse 34 tells us this, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Righteousness has with it great assurance. So the effect of repentance and righteous living is peace and tranquility to the nation of Judah. And so it will be to all who live for the Lord. There is a peace that passeth all understanding, and that peace is here by way of righteousness, and that righteousness is here by way of the pouring out of the Spirit of God. Verse 18. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Hezekiah's reign was marked with great peace and prosperity in revival, This should be the goal of a nation that calls upon the Lord and lives for him. This is the promise to Judah, and it is a small picture of the promises of the new heaven and new earth. elsewhere in Isaiah, the people will dwell safely in their houses, and their houses shall be their own, not given over to others to inhabit or made desolate. They would enjoy the fruit of their labor in quiet resting places. Verse 19, when it shall hail coming down to the forest, on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place. This is poetic language used to describe the destruction of the Assyrians. Where did you come up with that, Brother Ben? The Lord is going to rain judgment down upon them like hail. Isaiah chapter 28 verse 17 says this, Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. Hail is an emblem of judgment in several places in scripture. Here we find the hail coming down on the forest. The forest, earlier in our passage and elsewhere, is a description of Assyria. This is the hail of God's judgment falling on the forest of the Assyrian army. Assyria would lose 185,000. of its best soldiers in one night, and Sennacherib would go back to Nineveh ashamed and defeated, only to be assassinated later by his sons. The city that is low and in a low place appears to be the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, which would be brought low by the word of their defeat. Verse 20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. This is a verse of contrast, a different end to the story for Judah than we just saw in verse 19 for Assyria. In contrast to the ruin of Assyria, Judah would prosper. The Lord would send water and great agricultural blessings so that those that sowed beside all these waters would prosper with fruitful farms. They would have oxen and asses provided to help plow and work the farms and multiply the food supply. This would be so good, though, that the very feet of the beast would turn the soil with no need for plows. We read of all this prosperity, or all this change, in chapter 30 of Isaiah in verses 23 through 26. We read that it would be so good that the beast would eat very well in those times, eating the choicest of grains. Truly the Lord would overwhelm them with blessings and prosperity, and this would be the end of things. But I thought prosperity was bad. Didn't prosperity cause the women of Judah to live in ease and luxury? Well, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Let us look to some lessons that we may learn. There has been much made about oppression in our modern day. We hear about the top 1% and all the evils of the existence of billionaires. What we don't realize is that we, that's right, you and me, us poor folks listening to this, represent the top 1%. That top 1% is wealthy, for sure, and wealthy beyond reason. But that top 1% includes us. If you live in the United States, you are automatically included. You might be aware of inflation and the high cost of living in recent times. And you may be tempted to think that we have it rough or that even a very large percentage of people have it rough. This is not to discount the fact that many live paycheck to paycheck, and there are certainly problems. But we need to be given a little bit of perspective when it comes to what we think of wealth and luxury in our day. You live in the most prosperous time in history globally. In 1800, the world population was one billion, and 90% of the world lived in extreme poverty. What is extreme poverty, you ask? Living on less than $1.90 per day, adjusted, of course, for inflation and international price differences. Today, the population of the world exceeds 8 billion, and less than 10% of the population globally lives in extreme poverty. So the population grew eightfold and yet the number of people living in extreme poverty went down from 90% of that population to 10% of that population. Again, we live in the most prosperous time in modern history, for sure, if not the most prosperous time in human history. We live like kings and queens. So let us not consider ourselves immune from the luxurious living that is described in this passage, as even the poorest among us have more than Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of. Just pull out your cell phone. With all the ease we have in our hands, we have become too much at ease spiritually. What has God called us to? A life of ease and luxury or a life of holiness? Having prosperity is not evil. In fact, we should be thankful for it, but we must not make the ease and comforts we enjoy into idols. Instead, we should be thankful for the abundance of all things. The warning is plain in the text of Deuteronomy 28, 47, and 48. Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee. As we have celebrated Thanksgiving, we would do well to listen to the Scriptures. We do not deserve the blessings we have, and we did not get them by our own efforts. Without the Lord, we would have nothing that we have. We should therefore serve the Lord with gladness of heart for the great abundance He has bestowed. The question is, are we? We need to think about this soberly. Is the source of your joy abundance, or is the source of your joy the Lord who gave that abundance? If you have made an idol out of abundance, be sure the Lord will not have any other gods in his place. God will remove all the false gods and all the false joys. Seek ye first instead the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And the scriptures promise, all these things shall be added unto you. So the problem we have is not with the luxury or the abundance, but it is what we do with it and the reason that we enjoy it. We need to return to first things and first loves. And the first love we should have is our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The prosperity we enjoy is wonderful, and we must understand it is a good gift from the one true living God. The problem is that we seem to have this same repetitive issue, that time and time again, we love and cherish the gifts above the giver. And so what are we now to do? We need the Spirit to be poured out upon us in a mighty way, so we need to pray to that end, that God would pour His Spirit out upon us and upon all the people in all the nation. This isn't a call for a new charismatic movement, but it is a call to righteousness and right judgment, which things are only possible by the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon men. So many times we think when we hear the Spirit's poured out that somebody's going to be speaking in tongues. But the Spirit poured out is required for us to love one another appropriately. It is required to have righteousness and right judgment. And so we need to pray, not for more money or a bigger house or a fancier car, but for holiness. We need to pray for the souls of our children. We need to pray for the Spirit to be poured out upon us. Do we pray for others and their joy and peace? Do we live our lives righteously, aiming for pleasing the Lord and producing joy and peace among men? What blessings await us if we but show our gratitude and prayer and joy, serving the Lord with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things? And so as we have celebrated Thanksgiving, I say, let us do so, let us rejoice, and may the Lord give us more light. bringing the light of Jesus Christ into a sin-darkened world. This is the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. The Primitive Baptists who bring you this program each week do so with the following conviction. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. It is our guide for what we are to believe, and it is our guide for what we are to do. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, and He is to be followed as Lord and Savior. And, we believe that His salvation is a free gift of God's sovereign grace, not dependent on any work that we do, but wholly dependent on His finished work done on our behalf. We present this weekly Bible study based on the premise of Psalm 119 verse 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. If you would like to contribute to the furtherance of this program, then please send your donation to this address. The Lighthouse P.O. Box 1317, Baxley, GA 31515. Again, that is The Lighthouse EO Box 1317, Baxley, GA 31515. Or if you would like to send a question or comment to us, you can also send your correspondence to that address. We also have a website where you can access our programs and other helpful information. It can be found at www.lighthousebiblestudy.org. That's all one word and with all lowercase letters. Again, that's www.lighthousebiblestudy.org. Until next week, this is your speaker, Ben Fordham, praying that God will light your world.