Exposition by Max A Forsythe
This week one of the major news magazines devoted its cover and major story to a growing problem with registered breeds of dogs. The essential problem has to do with genetic diseases afflicting most of our pedigreed pets. You see, over the years, professional breeders have become more concerned with looks rather than the abilities for which each breed of dog was originally bred. Long noses for collies, body length for Dachshunds, and so on. Form over function, as we might easily sum it up. As the professionals have sought their desired traits, there have been genetic trade offs. Collies for years have been known for nervousness, Dachshunds for weak backs and German Shepherds for weak hips. Of the major breeds, the Border Collies are one that the owners have continued to use for their primary function of herding animals. Their competitive shows are some of the few where the animals actually compete in field trials. Most of the rest are merely canine beauty shows. Now, to be sure there are just plain dumb dogs even within the Border Collie breed. However when it comes to buying a pet, one may be much better off with a Heinz 57 mongrel unless you have investigated the pure bred puppy very carefully. Our collie, Celti, is a mixed bred of Scots Collie and a Border Collie. Fortunately she inherited the best characteristics of both breeds. She has the looks of a full blooded Collie and the personality and intelligence of the Border breed. Like all farm dogs, Celti is kept as a watch dog. And she is very competent at her job; she will sometimes bark even before the electronic sensor goes off. Farm dogs are so important that the IRS will even allow us to deduct the costs of their keep. Because of urbanization it is no longer safe to let our guard dogs run free, yet over the years a barking dog has kept the coyotes and foxes at bay so that our chickens and sheep could sleep well at night. What if the border collies had been as finely tuned as all of the rest of the purebreds? Would Celti have the intelligence to do her job as well as she has?
In a century when the life of Christ’s Church has dwindled away to almost nothing of spiritual importance, our lead story has implications within the context of Isaiah’s passage. Our scripture portion today spans across two chapters. The passage first describes the character of Israel’s false shepherds and secondly lists their gruesome accomplishments. Let us first consider the character description at the end of chapter fifty-six. The image here is that of shepherd and watch dog. These prophets and kings of Israel have become blind and wicked. Like dumb dogs who have lost their interest in barking, these prophetic and kingly shepherds lack understanding. Blind dogs, Isaiah calls them, dogs who run in party packs. They have the appetite of wolves, but are never satisfied. In verse ten there are three apt descriptions of their faithlessness. Isaiah’s first charge is that they are dreamers or, as the Hebrew allows, indulged in mad ravings. Like some of my unstable students, they are living in an alternate universe of their own imagination. What good are such prophets who are being consumed by their own visions instead of faithfully reporting the revelations of our Lord and our God.? Jeremiah knew their kind well in his day.
The second charge is that the shepherds are lying down on the job instead of actively carrying out their tasks. I once knew a pastor who came into the office after ten, went to a two hour lunch at eleven, and hardly ever spent more than one evening out in any week. He also subscribed to the most sermon services that I have ever seen. Did you know that there are publishers who make a living writing material for lazy pastors to use? A few years ago I had a weekly theological column in a local paper. Within months I heard that a priest, and two pastors were using my material, not realizing that some members of their flock had picked up the same resort paper from Indian Lake that they had. So, I started a six part series to build up to a dramatic climax. Each week I built up the importance of the climatic revelation. The sixth week, I missed my deadline on purpose and the seventh week, I started something new. The publisher was instructed to say that the Spirit had led me on to other concerns.
The third charge is that they love to sleep, that they are more concerned with their own enjoyment and comfort than the condition of God’s people. At one time I had to check in regularly with another pastor. He had a normal forty hour schedule which did not coincide with my own. On Mondays when I called, the answering machine simply announced that he was not available. If I called after six, and caught his wife, she would not bother him. After my third call she testily announced that if I couldn’t call during weekly business hours, than I shouldn’t call at all! So I never have again. I’m sure you have met the type in many professions.
Isn’t it interesting that some things never change from Isaiah’s time to our own? But unlike our present year, the situation in Isaiah’s time was more grim than our own. Hezekiah’s own son Manasseh persecuted the innocent and revived the pagan religion. As we look at the first thirteen verses of chapter fifty-seven we see described the two types of people in Israel and the way of their lives. Before we conclude we will look first at the lifestyle of the worldly, the ungodly. Look at the long list of debauchery to which the worldly descend. In verse three they are described as the spiritual sons of a sorceress. This is very much like Jesus’ observation that the Temple leaders of His day were in reality the sons of Satan. There are strong words here and the implications imply the worst. In our time, the increasing lack of responsible fathers has given rise to large numbers of fatherless sons who for the first time in many decades helps us appreciate what the ancient words bastard and worse really truly mean.
The exact generation described in these verses is not clear. But, unredeemed men in every place and every time are capable to descending to the level described clearly in these verses. Their flagrant apostasy is downright wicked. In verse four we see this generations attitude towards the God of heaven. They stick out their tongue? Rebels all, God’s word declares. Perhaps they breed children in one pagan grove to sacrifice them in another. To the gods and goddesses of wood and stone they pour out the offerings that should be given to God alone. The very door posts where the pious Jew would inscribe the Shema has instead pagan inscriptions. After Ishtar and the pagan fertility rites, they have fallen into beds of wantonness. They washed themselves in olive oil and perfumes as they descended into decadence. Exhausted from their exertions, they would not admit their folly. Is it just coincidence that Mondays are generally quiet days at work and school? In their own strength, the worldly here in verse ten find their own strength. In verse eleven God asks these worldly wantons who they have feared more then Himself. And then He informs them that the reason they have been left in the desire of their own ways is more tragic than they can know.
In the final words of verse eleven, He reveals that “is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?” God has chosen to pass them by and leave them go their own way. And boy do they make a good show of it in these verses. Do we all understand that this is where our own society is headed and that the only reason we have not followed the pied piper from hell is the fact that God’s Spirit has held His elect back from perdition? Someone once observed that the work of the Holy Spirit is much like that of the good shepherd dogs. Running here and there, herding the elect through the right gates, lying in gates through which they must not pass, nipping at their heels to encourage them to flee from danger, and obeying all the whistles and directions of the Good Shepherd Himself. The wicked have not the harrying hounds of heaven, they have not the help of the Spirit. God condemns them to depend upon their collection of idols to save them. Then He observes that “the wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.” But the righteous elect are another matter. Turn back to the first two verses of this chapter to see the way of the righteous. Even in the midst of the wicked persecution of the worldly, the righteous when they are taken away are spared from evil. And in that sparing, they enter into peace and rest. The last phrase of verse thirteen sums it all up for us today. “The man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.” Thank goodness!
Several of our newer teachers are going home exhausted at the end of each day. Of course these are the ones who are taking their jobs seriously, trying to make a difference in a wicked and perverse generation, like many that have haunted the centuries of mankind’s sorry history. Now, to put things into perspective the difficulties of school are no more than those of many other jobs. And even in the midst of work-a-day experiences many are learning to depend more fully upon the love and grace of our Father. Alexandr Solystnisn, the great Russian writer of this century witnesses to the fact that were it not for the sufferings of the Soviet prison system, he probably would not have come to faith in Jesus Christ. So the stresses and strains of life do work for the benefit of those who belong to the Lord, and in the strangest places and to the most unlikely candidates, the hound of heaven, comes sometimes barking and nipping to hurry us through the gates of righteousness and into the expansive green fields of the heavenly home. May we thank the Lord every day that we are His and that we have not been left with the worldly.
Resources Used:
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentery Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
11 December 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.