ISAIAH - CHAPTER 59 - "THEY HATCH COCKATRICE' EGGS"
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 59
“THEY HATCH COKATRICE’ EGGS”
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 10, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The prophet continues to declare the reason for national suffering. The people had been quarreling with God about unanswered prayer. It is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, nor is His ear heavy when we speak. It is because our ears are heavy when He speaks to us.
Isa. 59: 1-2: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He not hear.”
The reason why religious services of a nation are not accepted, and the nation delivered from calamity is their hypocrisy and sins. The misdeeds which are here enumerated are mainly the leaders and judges.
59: 3-4: “Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perverseness. None call for justice, nor do any plead for truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.”
To show God’s people their transgressions, the prophet begins with their thoughts. For there all sin begins. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. If we give place to wicked thoughts long enough, we will act on the wickedness.
James 1:15: “When lust is conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished brings forth death.”
That is why it is so important what we look upon and what we listen to. Once we allow lust to take over our thought life, the sin of the lust will follow.
This is called hatching the cockatrice’s egg and weaving the spider’s web.
Isa. 59: 5-6: “They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments; neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity. The act of violence is in their hands.”
Such are the thoughts of the wicked who plot and delight to do evil. He who eats their eggs (has any dealings with them) dies (that is he is in danger of having some mischief or other done him), and that which is crushed, or which begins to be hatched, breaks out into a viper, which you meddle with at your peril.
Out of this abundance of wickedness in the heart, the mouth speaks. It is covered with fair speech. They speak lies pretending kindness where the intent is mischief. Your tongue has muttered perverseness. Backbiters are called whisperers. Backbiters are guilty of shedding innocent blood.
59: 7-8: “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. They way of peace they do not know. There is no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked paths; whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.”
The fruit of these evildoers is the shedding of innocent blood; wasting and destruction. They do not speak peace or walk in peace. They are trouble makers and leave trouble in their path. Their judgment is erred. Their walk is crooked. They are not peacemakers. They create problems and cause trouble. Troubled people are trouble.
These will speak to us with a “forked tongue”. Those of us with gift-of-mercy will continue to extend grace to even the belligerent, until the Lord says – No more. Then He will turn them to their way until they repent.
This is what the prophet is preaching in His sermon.
However, once they receive Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, choose the Mind of Christ, the way of Christ, and are led by the Holy Spirit, His blood will cleanse and give new life to the worst troublers.
None call for justice. The prophet makes confession of moral failure.
59: 9-11: “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noon day as in the night. We are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn like doves. We look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation; but it is far from us.”
The speaker in verses 9-15 are the people. They make a confession of sin appropriate to the situation. Here there is no attempt to shift the blame whether in God’s direction or on the shoulder’s of the ruling class.
As a result of this appalling corruption, the suffering which follows is like groping in the dark, even though it is noonday. The people long for salvation which does not come. All of this is from the people’s own transgression. There must be a return to God if there is to be a return to peace.
59: 12-15a: “Our transgressions are multiplied before You. Our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are with us. As for our iniquities, we know them. In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Judgment is turned away backward. Justice stands afar off. Truth is fallen in the street. Equity cannot enter. Truth fails. He that departs from evil makes himself prey…”
The sins of God’s people are worse than the sins of others. In transgressing, they lie against the Lord. They misrepresent him and break covenant with Him, which is lying against Him. Those who are false to the Lord will be unfaithful to one another. Many a word of falsehood is uttered without thinking it through. However, their lies were conceived and uttered deliberately with the intent of malice.
Their lies were uttered from the heart because they agreed with the malice and wickedness of the heart.
Psalm 12:2: “They speak vanity every one with his neighbor; with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.”
59: 15b-16: “…the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. He saw there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him.”
The word for “man” is “iysh” = a notable man of high degree.
The word for intercessor is a study unto itself. It is one who entreats and meets with God.
An intercessor cries out to God for the people. A prophet sits in the council of God and says, “Thus says the Lord”. When prophets and intercessors pray together, there should be a flow of intercession and a response in divine utterance.
Thus the prophet describes how this restoration will come. It is to be wholly a victory by Jehovah Himself! It is based on the knowledge of the people’s sin, and on the fact that they are unable to provide an intercessor. It is the result of His action alone. His arm brings salvation. God’s plan of salvation will not only redeem mankind, but will join together heaven and earth under the headship of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This work will be for His Glory and for His Name.
Necessarily, His first work is judgment.
Verses 17-19 describe our Warrior King Jesus.
“For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”
His own hand and arm which is never shortened brought salvation and will continually bring Divine justice and Divine grace.
Deut 9:5: “Not for your righteousness, but the wickedness of these nations are they driven out.”
In our redemption by Christ, we had no righteousness of our own. God brought in righteousness by his own Son. This is the righteousness which is of God by faith. Righteousness is his coat of arms. Salvation is his crest. For the Christian this is our armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. Jesus wore it first and so fitted it for us.
God will put on the garments of vengeance for clothing. Romans 12:19: “Dearly Beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” He and He alone fulfilled the avenger of the blood. The word for avenger is “gaal” and also means the Kinsman Redeemer which is the same word used in verse 20.
59:20: “The Redeemer (gaal) shall come to Zion and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.
He and He alone will Redeem, and Avenge His Church. Jesus Christ will bring Justice upon the enemies of his church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
The Redeemer has come to Zion. The result is a new spiritual covenant. There will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Lord’s people.
59:21: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord; My Spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the Lord, from hereafter and forever.”
This is a promise of the continuance and perpetuity of the church in the world until the end of time. The throne and seed of Christ shall endure forever. The Holy Spirit shall indwell us as our sanctifier. He will always continue in the hearts of the faithful. The Comforter shall abide with the church forever.
There shall be some in every age who believing with the heart unto righteousness, shall with the tongue make confession unto salvation. On these foundations is the church built, stands firmly, and shall stand for ever. Christ Himself being the one whose hand and arm brought Salvation.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Matthew Henry’s Commentary. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Bro. Henry.