Jews for Jesus, Someday - Isaiah 29

[Read Isaiah 29, beginning with verse 9.]

Today we are studying the 29th chapter of Isaiah by way of the New Testament.  In your bulletin you have a chart with five verses from Isaiah chapter 29 in the left column. (Reader: See the parallel verses at bottom of page) All five of those verses are repeated in the New Testament.  That is why some of them may sound familiar.  The Jews would have been familiar with these verses because of their familiarity with the Old Testament prophets.  We are familiar with them because of their appearance in the New Testament.

The New Testament contexts in which Isaiah’s words appear are very interesting.  Two of the five Isaiah verses are quoted by Jesus.  He applies those verses to the people He is speaking to, and in doing so He declares Isaiah’s prophecies to be fulfilled.  For example, in Mark 7:5-9 Jesus quotes Isaiah 29, verse 13:

5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

In other words, the Pharisees preferred Jewish cultural convictions, the teachings of their Elders and rabbis, over the Word of God.  And that is still the case today.  Isaiah’s prophecy is still being fulfilled, generation after generation after generation.

We have talked before about this universal preference among people for culture over truth.  It is part of the fallen human nature to find it impossible to part company with family or friends or country or race or culture or community for the sake of the Gospel.  “I can’t become a Christian because I’ll lose my friends.”  “My family will disown me.”  “I’ll be perceived as a traitor.”  “They will think I’m crazy.“  Sometimes Christian people, refuse to leave apostate denominations.  Why?  Why would they do that?  Because their friends are there.  They are comfortable with their church culture.  Maintaining friendships trumps obedience to God.

All unregenerate people are naturally unwilling to change sinful lifestyles because the enjoyment of sin is more valuable than forgiveness of sin.  Thabiti Anyabwile said something that sounds rather harsh, but it is absolutely true: Every culture in the world is an apostate culture.  Nationality, and race, and ethnicity, and spouses, and children, and personal preferences always trump the truth of the Gospel.  It happens all the time.  Culture is an idol that keeps us from the true God who tells us to forsake everything to follow Christ.  

But men reject the command of God in order to keep their lives and traditions and their religious preferences intact.  That is the human condition, even among the Jews.  That was the case with the Jews in Isaiah’s day, it was the case with the Jews in Jesus’ day, and it continues among the Jews even until today.

Last week, I told you about an article that was forwarded to me by Baruch Maoz, a Reformed Baptist Jewish pastor in Israel, concerning the attitude of present-day Jews in Israel towards Messianic Jews in general, and towards the Jews for Jesus ministry in particular.  I want to read excerpts from that article to you:

Why “Jews for Jesus is Evil” by Bradley Burtson, Ha’Aretz May 19, 2007

We were driving in the Galilee, waiting for a red light to change, when they came up to the car. Their smiles were engagingly open as they wished us a fine trip. Then they offered us the flyer. Jews for Jesus. Who says that evil can't be imported, and delivered, free of charge, direct to your car door? Don't get me wrong. The members of Jews for Jesus are pure souls. They are among the most wholesome, guileless, truly well-meaning, fundamentally lovely people you will ever meet. More's the pity, therefore, that there's a special place in hell just for them.

I would like to begin by saying that I have nothing personal against these people. But that would be a lie.

The reason is that, grinning all the way, they want to take something personal from me. My history, my belief system, my ancestry. The flyers say they are concerned for my soul, and I believe them with all my heart. It's precisely my soul they're after, all right, mine and as many others as possible.  They're out to harvest Jewish souls in the name of Christ. And they're out to do it right here (in Israel, BM).

Make no mistake, I believe that these Christians must have every freedom to worship Jesus as their lord and messiah, perform every ritual, and celebrate every holiday that they see fit. If they want to do Born-again Kiddush and Last Supper Kneidelach and Savior Shalosh S'eudes – gezunterheit (Yiddisch for May they be well, BM). And if missionary activity is a commandment in their view, I wish them every success - just one thing: Leave the Jews alone.

The world is a target-rich environment for the missionary, the Protestant Christian world in particular. There's no end of lapsed Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Anabaptists, whom you're free to try to cajole into Christ. You don't need us. Jesus doesn't need us. Leave us alone.

Proselytizing is persecution. 

But there's more than one way to wipe out a people, and poison, like gas, comes in many forms. Sometimes it looks like a leaflet. Sometimes it looks like the Internet. Sometimes it looks like a smile. It should have occurred to you by now that Jews in the post-Holocaust era have a mission, no less than you. We have some saving to do of our own. In ways which are as individual as each Jew in the world, it has been left to us to save Jewry itself - its faith, its culture, its values, its memory, its history - from extinction.

Look around. There aren't that many of us left. There are 2 billion Christians in the world, and nearly a billion and a quarter Muslims. There are barely 14 million Jews left alive on this planet. In 1933, that number was 15.3 million. Leave us alone.

If you're a Jew for Jesus and you're still reading this, you may well be thinking: This guy sounds riled. He needs a friend in Jesus. You're thinking wrong. This guy needs you to keep your salvation to yourself. Believe whatever you want. Practice whatever you preach. Just stay the hell away from us.

If Mr. Burtson is typical of the Jews living in Israel today (and that is how Pastor Maoz seems to present him), then this should help us understand what Isaiah and Jesus and Paul were talking about in regard to the spiritual condition of Israel when they quoted Isaiah.  Isaiah said of the Jews in chapter 29, verse 10:

For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

The apostle Paul quotes that verse as a description of the Jews of his day:

Romans 11:8  as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

That spirit of stupor, that deep spiritual sleep God has imposed upon them can almost be felt in the words of Mr. Burtson.  According to him, there is a special place in hell for those who supposedly try to steal his Jewishness from him and the Jewish people.  He has exalted Jewish culture to a place far above the need for repentance and the forgiveness of sin.  His god has become Jewry itself: “It has been left to us to save Jewry itself - its faith, its culture, its values, its memory, its history - from extinction.  Leave us alone.”  

In other words, salvation by means of Jesus Christ is a threat to being Jewish, and being Jewish is all-important.  “You can’t be both a Christian and a Jew.  So leave us Jews alone.”

If we understand that to be the general mindset of the Jews of Israel, then the following verses in Isaiah 29 are even more striking.  This speaks of a future demonstration of the power of God to save not only a few, but an entire nation of Jews.  God overthrows the hatred of the people of Israel in order to save them from their own rebellion against Him.  Notice Isaiah 29:14.

“Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

God is saying here that the day will come when He will AGAIN do wondrous things in Israel as He has done in the past.  He will pile upon them wonders on top of wonders, possibly as He did with them in the days of Moses.  His deliverance of them will be a deliverance from their own so-called wise and discerning men.  Men like Mr. Burtson who are too wise and discerning to fall for all this “Jesus is the Messiah” stuff.

Every once in a while, like two days ago, I see on the internet a thread of comments about some moral issue in which Christians and non-Christians are debating.  The Christians generally don’t argue well.  What they usually say is little more than the repetition of cliches like, “Well if the Bible says it, that’s the end of the argument.”  At the same time, the non-Christians “debate” with misinformed, stereotypical statements based mostly upon hearsay and totally subjective opinions like the one I read yesterday where I was informed that Christians hate scientists and don’t believe in science. 

Where do you start to address that kind of discussion?  How does one enter into a debate with people whose arguments are driven solely by ignorant emotionalism?  As I read through some of the comments from both sides, I had no idea which side I should address first, or where to start!  What is the cure for such ridiculous foolishness that parades itself as wisdom?  How does one convince the foolish of their foolishness when they are already fully convinced they are sophisticated and erudite guides to the blind?

Here’s how Paul says it happens in 1 Corinthians 1:19.  He is speaking of how both Jews and Gentiles are brought to a saving understanding of the Gospel, and he quotes Isaiah 29:14:

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

For men to be saved, God must destroy their misguided self-confidence.  In order for the Jews (or anyone else) to be brought out of the deadness of sin and pride, God must overthrow their thinking.  All men everywhere are anti-God.  They are naturally antagonistic towards the truth that would save them.  So in order to save men like Bradley Burtson and Keith Doster, the Spirit of God must move upon us to destroy and thwart our reliance upon our own false wisdom and so-called discernment.  

Notice how Paul states it there in 1 Cor 1.  Salvation is not a negotiated peace.  Rather, if we are to be saved, He must overthrow us, He must conquer our stubborn wills.  God must convince us of our own spiritual stupidity, and destroy it.  Salvation is the successful triumph of God’s will over man’s rebellious foolishness and self-reliance.  It is not a compromise.  Salvation happens when God conquers us by destroying our “wisdom” and by thwarting our “discernment”.  

According to what I am seeing here in Isaiah, he is saying that the day will come when God will do this very thing for Israel on a large, national scale.  I believe that is exactly what Isaiah is prophesying.  He is predicting the day when God saves the Jews from themselves.  God is going to correct the faulty thinking of Israel as a nation.  According to Isaiah 29:16, their thinking is “upside down”:

You turn things upside down!  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Let’s get specific here.  Who is the Creator of all things and all men, including the Jews?  What do we read in the New Testament?  Is it not the Lord Jesus?  “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”  (Colossians 2:9 ESV).  The Word which was God became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1).  God, in the person of the Lord Jesus, created us. (Hebrews 1:2).

I believe it is generally true among the Jews of today, although there are a lot of Jews who are atheists, but generally speaking, most Jews believe God, the God of Abraham, created everything.  But God is certainly not Jesus Christ!  Absolutely, they would say of the Potter who made them, “HE did not make me!  HE has no understanding of us!  HE has no part with us!  Leave us alone”  

But God says, and we agree, that that kind of thinking is upside down.  That is the kind of spiritual blindness and cultural idolatry that must be overcome in order for the Jews in particular to be saved.  God must turn over their upside down “wisdom”, and their 180 degrees in the wrong direction “discernment”.  He has to do that with us all in order to save us, but in these verses it is the Jews that are being spoken of specifically.  

Notice how it will happen, once again, according to Isaiah and Jesus.  Look at Isaiah 29:18.

In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

Jesus said it this way as He answered the questions of John the Baptist:

. . . [T]he blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  (Matt 11:5)

How do the spiritually deaf and blind receive their spiritual sight?  Isaiah says they will be made to hear the words of a book, and Jesus says they will have good news preached to them.  People are delivered from their state of deadness towards the truth of God BY the truth of God.  Saving faith comes, according to Isaiah, and Jesus, and Paul, by hearing the word of God.

The five verses from Isaiah 29 which we’ve seen here began with a curse upon the Jews in verse 10: God gave them a spirit of stupor.  God removed from them those prophets who could see and hear and speak to them for God.  Their rejection of God resulted in being rejected BY God.  Consequently, their worship devolved into nothing more than lip-service.  Their heartless, mindless, ignorant practice of their traditions superseded the commands and laws God had given them.  

But God, in His mercy and for the sake of His own name, promised to turn the people of Israel around by working wonders in their midst again, as He did in the past.  Through His miraculous working in their midst, they will see the foolishness of their so-called wise men, and they will see through the “smoke and mirrors” of their so-called discerning leaders.  What they have turned upside down in the minds of God’s people, God Himself will correct.  The Jews’ longstanding denial of God will be repented of when God opens the ears of those He has made spiritually deaf, and He causes the spiritually blinded eyes to finally see rightly.

Finally, those who have said for so many centuries, “Leave us alone!” will be brought near to the Lord Jesus Christ, their Creator.  In that day, the foolish, misguided, arrogant, rebels with their upside down thinking will finally look upon the One whom they pierced and recognize Him for who He really is: the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world!  

God kills, and God makes alive!  God curses men for their sin, and He bears the curse of sin for men.  God causes the “seeing” to be blind, and then He causes the blind to see!  God hardens men’s hearts, and He breaks their stubborn hearts with the truth of the Gospel.

I do not know when this will happen for Israel.  I don’t know when the final culmination of Isaiah’s prophecies will take place.  There is still a “not yet’ aspect in these words.  But in the book of Romans, Paul explains to us in chapter 11 a little more of this mystery.  Look with me at verse 25.  In speaking to the Gentiles whom the Lord has saved, he says this:

25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 

“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 

27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” [Isaiah 59:20, 21]

28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

All Israel will be saved.  How?  When God takes away their sins according to His covenant, according to His promise to His elect people.  This does not mean that all Jews that have ever lived will be saved.  What it means is in that future day, whenever it is, God will save the Jewish nation as a whole.  He will do the work in spite of their rejection of Him, and cause the blinded hearts and minds of Israel to see and know and understand and repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then Paul concludes his thoughts with this exultant word:

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?” 

35 “Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

God has great and wonderful things in store for the Jewish people.  Someday, those who have said to Jesus, “Leave us alone!” will bow before Him in adoration and praise for His mercy in saving them from themselves and their own rebellion against Him.  Amazing stuff.  God is good!  Hallelujah!

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Isaiah 29:10  For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). Romans 11:8  as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

Isaiah 29:13  And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, . . .  Mark 7:6  And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ (cf Matt 15:8-9)

Isaiah 29:14  therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”   1 Corinthians 1:19  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Isaiah 29:16  You turn things upside down!  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?   Romans 9:20  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

Isaiah 29:18  In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. Matt 11:5  the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and l the poor have good news preached to them. (cf Luke 7:22)