O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Part 2)

 


Christmas is a time of joy and light, but the story of Christmas does not begin with that. To understand Christmas, you have to understand the darkness and despair into which that story came. In our last article, we talked about the first prophecy of Isaiah which showed the dark state of the people of Judah and, symbolically, of the entire world. What we saw there, in very graphic terms, was that mankind had given in to sin. They had turned their back on God, and so were lost in the darkness. And as we see here, that had serious consequences.

(Isaiah 1:5-9) Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

What we see here is that mankind has become corrupted and desolate.

In verses 5-6, God pictures the condition of Judah as that of a man who had been beaten almost to death, black and blue from head to foot, covered in wounds and bruises and sores, broken, hurting, and dying. Verse 7 moves from metaphors to reality, speaking of the desolation of the land caused by their enemies—probably Syria and the northern kingdom. Cities had been burned by fire, and the good of the country had been consumed by strangers. Jerusalem stood alone amidst this desolation, like a temporary shed in a garden—lonely and isolated.

As Americans, we have been very blessed. Though we have been involved in several wars, there have only been a few foreign strikes on our soil. It is hard for us to imagine what it was like for the Jews of the Old Testament, who were repeatedly invaded and almost conquered by foreign powers who left destruction and desolation in their path.

That was the state of Judah at the time of this prophecy. However, the context of the prophecy seems to say that there was more to this disaster than might first appear. It wasn't merely that their enemies had attacked and destroyed them. God had arranged and allowed these foreign invasions. This desolation happened because of the wickedness described in the first four verses.

We realize that not all problems are brought about by sin. We often suffer because of no fault of our own and sometimes, even, specifically because we are doing what is right. But it is also true that trouble is sometimes a result of sin, and this was the case for the people of Judah. And this pictures to us what the result of sin is. Sin always brings this sort of destruction and desolation. 

Because of sin, man's moral nature was incurable. In Biblical times, corporal punishment was common for wrong-doers. Those who rebelled against the law were liable to judicial beatings. That seems to be the background of verses 5 and 6.  The picture is of a criminal who had been punished for his crimes—and then had gone on to sin again and so had been punished again and again and again. We have all heard news stories of people—or have known them personally—who go to jail and get out and then almost immediately commit some crime and get sent straight back to jail. Punishment is supposed to deter crime, but often it has no affect. 

The Lum and Abner Show was a radio program in the '40s that centered around two men from the back hills of Arkansas. One of the running themes of the program was that Lum was always falling prey to schemes and swindles and continually getting himself in trouble. And at one point, his partner Abner comments: “They say that the burnt child is afraid of the fire; but Lum's been burnt, singed, grilled, and bar-b-qued, but every time there's a fire, you'll find him right in the middle of it, eating the hot coals like they was popcorn.”

That was the condition of the people God is addressing here. Over and over again, God had punished them for their sins. And sometimes they had repented. But inevitably, as soon as the pressure was off, they went right back into their sins. And that pattern would continue, despite the warnings of Isaiah. Verse 5 summarizes the issue: “Ye will revolt more and more.” Despite God's discipline, despite everything God could do to draw them back to the right path, they continued to rebel against His law. Their moral nature was incurable.

That is what sin does. Every action has a reaction. Every cause has an effect. Everything we do has consequences, and the most certain consequences are the consequences to ourselves. Robert Burnes said of sin that “It harden a' within/And petrifies the feelin'.” Every sin makes it easier to commit another sin. When mankind sinned, it brought a corruption and dissolution into human nature.

And that is why no mere external restraints can ever solve the problem of sin. Education, discipline, morality, and civil law cannot make a sinner into a saint. They are good in so far as they go, but they cannot solve the fundamental problem of mankind because man's fundamental problem is in his heart; because of his sin, his moral nature is incurable. Sin brought corruption into the very heart of humanity.

We should never ignore the reality of external pressures which bring corruption. It is perfectly true that for most people, the occasion of sin comes through external circumstances; situations and other people act as the opportunity for sin and often are, intentionally or unintentionally, tempters enticing their brothers to do wrong. Yet none of that changes the fact that, in the end, there is a corruption in the heart of mankind that exists before and outside of all these things. Outside influences may give occasion for man's corruption to show itself; other people, by their actions, can expedite or retard the growth of this corruption; and yet, there is corruption at man's heart which does not come from outside him. Jesus said that it is from the heart, from the innermost being of man, that the corruption of sin flows out. (Mark 7:21) And this corruption is a result of sin; first, of the sin of Adam, and later from the sins of each individual. This is a vicious cycle. Corruption leads to sin, and sin leads to further corruption.

However, though this is a heart problem, it has practical ramifications. Because of sin, man's world was in ruins. This was literally the case for the people of Judah. As we mentioned before, at this time, Judah had been devastated by foreign invasions that left ruin and destruction behind them. Cities had been burned, people had been massacred, and fields had been devoured. When Isaiah began his prophecy, the nation around him lay desolate. I don't know this for sure, but I think Isaiah's vision here was also looking forward to the time of the Babylonian Captivity when that desolation would be complete.

But the point to remember about this desolation is that it wasn't merely misfortune; it was a judgment allowed by God because of Judah's sins. But this was not an unfair or arbitrary judgment. By the very nature of sin, it will always lead to ruin and destruction.

Imagine a piece of delicate machinery like a clock. Pour a pint of sand all over the gears. Will it still work? Probably not; certainly not the way it is supposed to. You have introduced a foreign element that interferes with the proper relation of the pieces. That is what sin does. Sin was never supposed to exist in this world, so it naturally causes things to malfunction. Sin always destroys.

I don't need to belabor this point. Anyone with two eyes can see the state this world is in because of sin. The world was created to be perfect, not just physically but morally. All things were made to exist in harmony. But then sin came into the world. There is still enough of that original beauty to remind us of the world's origin and its original design, but as a whole, this world is nothing but a picture of desolation and corruption. Human relationships meant to bring joy and glory bring only misery and shame. Natural resources meant to be used in love and fellowship become the basis of strife and bloodshed. The earth itself was filled with violence. This is the ruin caused by sin.

It is not an obscure truth to be dug out of the pages of scripture. This is a fact you can find any day by looking at a newspaper or even looking out the window. All destruction and desolation came into the world because of the sin of Adam. Even now, much of it can be directly traced to the sins of individuals.

Sin brings destruction to the sinner, to those around him (even those who do not take part in his sin), and ultimately to the entire world. Look at what Paul says regarding the state of the world: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22) This is the result of sin.

When we look at this world and the state it is in, we wonder how it could become so bad. But when we look at mankind and the sins they commit, the more pressing question is: “Why is it not far worse?” How has the human race survived so long?

And the answer is that our existence is due solely to the grace of God. In verse 9, after describing all the destruction and desolation that Judah had experienced, Isaiah adds: “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah were so wicked that God in one night destroyed them, destroyed them so completely that not a trace remained. Judah could have been completely destroyed like that, but God left them a remnant. They were beaten but not obliterated, attacked but not annihilated. But it was only by the grace of God.

And that is a picture of the entire course of history since the Fall. Sin brought destruction into the world, and the fact that the world survived that first sin is a testimony to the grace of God. Man never had, intrinsically, any power to preserve himself, and, with sin, he had cut himself off from God, the source of his life, and so the natural result would have been immediate and complete destruction. But God preserved him.

The fact that this world is still rolling along, more or less all right, that there is still so much beauty and goodness in the world, is a direct testimony to the grace of God. But the point to remember is that it would not be there at all except for the grace of God. We would not be here at all except for the grace of God.

Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher of the great awakening, spoke these words to the sinners of his day: “You have offended [God] infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. 'Tis ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world after you closed your eyes to sleep; and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up.” 

That is the picture of every individual man and of every human civilization and of the world as a whole. It is only by God's mercy that any of us are still here at all. Because sin inevitably brings with it ruin and corruption and, ultimately, death and destruction.

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