Isaiah 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: The cause of Israel’s undoing: weak government; loose and low moralsThis is a continuation of the prophecy begun in chapter 2 (chs. 2-5 constitute a complete prophecy). In this section on judgment, chapter 3 reveals God’s judgment leveled particularly against the nation of Israel. Although it has application to other nations, the interpretation is definitely to Israel. Further along in this judgment section we will see God’s judgment of surrounding nations, which are among the most remarkable prophecies in the Word of God, and many of them have been literally fulfilled. However, we find that God’s judgment against Israel is more severe and intense than against any other nation. Why?

Well, Israel was the nation God had chosen in a peculiar way, and it enjoyed a particularly close relationship to God. Privilege creates responsibility. Because privilege always creates responsibility, I believe God will judge the United States more severely than He will judge any of our contemporary nationslike China, for example. The United States has been privileged to know the Word of God as no other nation hasexcept Israel. Israel as a nation had more light than any of its neighbors, and light rejected brings severe punishment, as will be illustrated in this book. The subject of God’s judgment may be offensive to you, but please don’t hide your head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. Let’s face reality whether we like it or not. God does judge sin. Not only will He judge sin in the future, He has judged it in the past. And He makes no apology for it. The prophecy before us is a picture of Isaiah’s day, and it has been fulfilled. However, its fulfillment does not exhaust its meaning, because the conditions described will prevail again at the end times and will bring down the wrath of God in judgmentnot only upon Israel but also upon the nations of the world. The first fifteen verses deal with the subject of weak government and women’s dress. These seem to be totally unrelated subjects, but we shall see that they are not as far removed as they appear to be. Weak government is caused by a lack of leadership, as evidenced by women rulersand we will see what Isaiah means by this.

Isaiah 3:1

WEAK GOVERNMENTThis verse confines us to Jerusalem and Judah. Although man does not live by bread alone, he surely needs it. This famine is a judgment of God. There are thirteen famines mentioned in the Word of God, and every one of them is a judgment from Him upon the nation of Israel.

Isaiah 3:2

God is going to remove not only bread and water but all the men of leadership. Qualified men for high positions are lacking, and this is a judgment from God. This can be brought up to date. Have you been impressed by the fact that there are no great men on the contemporary scene? There are quite a few men who are passing themselves off as great, but they would have been pygmies in the days of Washington, Lincoln, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, or the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence. I am not taking sides with any political party when I say this, but today there are many ambitious men, young and old alike, who have practically no qualifications as statesmen. One hundred years ago they would have been called cheap politicians, but today they are called statesmen! We have men of war, but we have no great generals. Our army would not be in the situation it is in today if it had strong leadership. There is lack of leadership in our judicial system. We have an alarming crime wave because we have pygmies sitting in the seats of judgment. Where is the prophet, the prudent, and the ancient? We have no statesmen at all today. What we have is a group of clever politicians who know how to compromise. I am not talking about a certain political party. I am simply saying that it is always the mark of a decadent age and the judgment of God when a nation is not producing great men. Moving into the field of the artswhat greatness do you see on the television screen? I get rather bored with the television talk programs. Generally the master of ceremonies comes out and says, “I am going to introduce you to a great artist, a genius.” And some little peanut comes out on stage, strums a guitardoesn’t play any music at alljust yells at the top of his voice. And he is hailed as a genius! Another man comes along who is introduced as a great literary light, and all that he has written is a dirty book. My friend, we lack greatness in this day, but we are not willing to admit it because we have become a proud nation. Where is greatness in the field of education? We used to believe that the educators had the solution to the problems of the world. Today it is obvious that educators cannot control even their own campuses. It is said that we used to have wooden ships and iron men, but now we have iron ships and wooden men. I would go further than that and call them paper doll men. Our leadership is just a string of paper dolls!

Isaiah 3:4

As far as ability is concerned, men in high positions today should be wearing diapers. Juvenile adults are our rulers, and they are totally incompetent. That is exactly what brought Israel down to ruin in that day. Their leaders had the mental level of children, and God sent them into captivity. He judged them.

Isaiah 3:5

My friend, it sounds as if Isaiah were talking about our day, but the same was true in his day. The child, the little college student, is saying, “Listen to me. I have something to say.” I have been listening to them for years, and I haven’t heard them say anything yet. One class is set against another class. “The people shall be oppressed, every one by another.” We have groups of minorities who want to inflict their ways on others. Christians are a minority also, but certainly we are not being heard.

Isaiah 3:8

“Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen"that’s what the prophet says. We don’t have many of God’s men in our day standing up, pointing at our nation, and saying, “Our cities are ruined,” although it is as true as it was in Isaiah’s time. “Because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” This is the key to the chapter, and it is the key to the ruin of Israel and of any other nation. God judges nations by their relationship to Him. The problem with the United States of America is that God has been run out of Washington, D.C. God has been ruled out in every area of our lives. A few little men think they can rule the world. How we need to be humbled, and I think we have been humbled. Russia has humbled us. China has humbled us. And little Vietnam humbled us. We are being humbled all over the world; yet we don’t wake up. We continue merrily on our way, coasting downhill on our godly ancestry.

Isaiah 3:9

Sin is out in the open. What used to be done in the backyard has been moved to the front yard. What was done under cover is now done in the open. The boast is that we are more honest now. No, we’re not more honest; we are the same hypocrites that our fathers were. They were hypocrites because they hid their sin, and we are hypocrites because we are sinning out in the open and trying to say that the sin is good! This is exactly what Israel was saying.

Isaiah 3:10

God promises to deliver His own people.

Isaiah 3:11

This is another way of saying, “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”

Isaiah 3:12

“Children are their oppressors.” The greatest problem in our day is juvenile delinquency. The greatest increase in crime is among young people, and the age drops every year. “Women rule over them.” Oh, “women’s lib” will not like Isaiah, and they won’t like me any better. “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” Whether women rulers are meant here or effeminate men is not clear. I think it is a little of both. The women’s liberation movement is another sign of a decadent age. When women act like men, they are not coming up to a high level but are descending to the male level. The woman has been given a greater amount of tenderness, but when she becomes as blase and brutal as a man, she actually becomes worse than he is. And that is the downfall of the nation.

That was true in Israel’s case, and it will be true in our own nation. Go to Italy and see the ruins of Pompeii, and then consider what removed the Romans from the earthly scene. The nation that once ruled the world collapsednot because they were attacked by someone on the outside, but because they fell from within. Listen to Him now as He pleads with His people:

Isaiah 3:13

“The ancients” and “the princes” are the leaders of the nation. God lays the blame on the adult leadership. The juvenile problem did not originate with young people. In Isaiah’s time there were a few who were trying to get rich and rule over everyone else. “The spoil of the poor is in your houses.” Godless capitalism and godless labor are big problems in our nation, and one is as bad as the other. The whole difficulty is that we are away from God. God is standing up ready to plead or ready to judge, and He will let the nation determine which it will be. We can have it either way. He will do one or the other.

Isaiah 3:16

WOMEN’S DRESSWhat a picture of womanhood! The problem, of course, is in the heart. In 1Pe_3:1-4 we read, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation [or, conduct] coupled with fear. [This doesn’t mean that she is to take abuse from him, but she is to live a godly life before him.] Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; [if you are trying to hold your husband with sex, you’ll lose him]. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” When I counsel with young couples I always tell them that there are three cords that hold marriage together, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. There is the physical cord, and that is important. Also there is the psychological cordthe same interests. Third, there is the spiritual cordthe same love for God and His work. If a wife is trying to hold her husband with only her physical attraction, the time will come when he is no longer interested. This is what Peter is saying. A wife’s attraction should be more than the way she dresses and styles her hair. Her beauty should be in the way she lives her life with a gentle and quiet spirit. Isaiah pictures the women of his day as haughty and sexy, “mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet.”

Isaiah 3:17

He is talking about a disease. Do you know that there is an epidemic of venereal disease in our nation right now? So many of our young girls look appealing, but they are like serpents along the way, as many a man is finding out to his sorrow.

Isaiah 3:18

Women’s dress is the barometer of any civilization. When women’s dress is modest it tells something about the nation as a whole. In these last few verses twenty articles of women’s wear are mentioned by name. There certainly is nothing wrong with a woman dressing in styleif the style is not immodest. I feel that all of us should look the best we can with what we have, even though some of us don’t have too much to work with. God is not condemning the women of Israel for dressing in the style of their day. He is talking about the inner life. They were haughty and brazen. Real adornment is beneath the skin, not from the skin outward. Women’s dress is the key to a nation’s morals.

Isaiah 3:25

There was a Roman medal which showed a woman weeping; the insignia beneath her read, Judea capta. It represented the captives of Israel. Because Israel did not heed the warnings God gave them, they went into captivity. As I write this, the terrible loss of our young men in Vietnam is still fresh in our minds. Now we are a nation at peace, and we feel very comfortable. But, my friend, the bombs are yet to fall on our nation, which I believe will be God’s judgment upon us.