Isaiah 16:1-14.  Today’s reading continues the message about Moab.  Moab was invaded and on the run.  In this reading they decide to ask for help.  They send a lamb, some sort of a gift or offering, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion, a fancy way of saying Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah.  They are sending it from Sela which is another name for Petra.  They have gone even further south in the wilderness or desert into the territory of Edom.  The Moabite are asking the king of Judah to hide them and let them stay with them.  In the second half of verse 4 the person talking changes from the representative from Moab to a representative from Judah, maybe Isaiah.  The person from Judah informs the Moabites that the invading army has disappeared.  He then goes on to say that a new kingdom is coming, one based on forgiveness or mercy or lovingkindness.  The Hebrew word used here is “hesed” and it is very big word.  It is about the love and faithfulness and forgiveness of God based on his promises.  This kingdom will have a king from the family of David who will deal rightly and fairly.  This description should remind you of Isaiah 11, Isaiah 9:1-7, and even Isaiah 7:14.  We know from the New Testament that this coming king from the family of David is Jesus.  The implication is that this new king had defeated the invading army.  This also might bring to mind the beginning of this section where God’s army is predicted to be coming to deal with disobedience and rebellion against God (Isaiah 13:9, see also Isaiah 14:12-15).

Unfortunately as we saw yesterday the Moabites had turned to their idols for help rather than the God of Israel.  Isaiah’s heart had cried out for them.   In today’s reading we see that Moab was very proud and boastful (vv. 6-7) and because of that their land had become unproductive and had been invaded.  Yet still Isaiah cries (v. 9) and in v. 11 even God is deeply moved for them (notice in v. 10  it says “I have made the joyful shouting to stop” and then in verse 11 the same person is sad).  But still the Moabites run up to their local shrines (the high places) and into their local temple to honor and plead with their false gods.  The result is they will not continue on.  Then Isaiah adds a PS to the original message.  Now there is a time when they will be defeated, three years.

It’s sad that the Moabites rejected the true God for their idols.  It sad that they rejected the true king who would be from the house of David because they wanted to run their own lives.  It interesting that David’s great-grandmother was a Moabite, Ruth (Ruth 1:4; 4:13-22).  So the coming great king of Israel who the Moabites rejected would be part Moabite (See Matthew 1:1-16 note v. 5).  From our study of Joshua we know that the history of the Israelites and the power of God was widely known (Remember the story of Rahab (Joshua 2:9) and als the story of the men from Gibeon (Joshua 9:3)) and the Moabites should have turned to God but instead they were proud and wanted to honor their fake gods instead of Yahweh.  That is why they did not find help from Judah and that is why they eventually were destroyed.  God wanted them, he was disturbed by the though of their destruction, and his servant Isaiah cried over them.  God want us all to come to him but he will not force us, he allows us to choose (2 Peter 3:9, John 1:12) but his justice and rightness and purity and holiness require punishment for sin, disobedience.  Those were the rule from the beginning (Genesis 2:17).  God is not slow but he will eventually judge sin and the Day of the Lord will come (2 Peter 3:10).  Choose wisely.  God thank you for giving us a choice.  Thank you that your son, Jesus,  took my punishment and also the punishment for the whole world (1 John 2:2).  God help me share the good news that we do not have to do it on our own, and fail.  We can have your help in being friends again.  Help many people give up their pride and choose wisely.  To you be the honor now and forever.