Isa 48:1-11 Part 1 – I Knew You Would Deal Very Treacherously

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Isa 48:1 HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
Isa 48:2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Isa 48:4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
Isa 48:5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
Isa 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
Isa 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
Isa 48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
Isa 48:10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Isa 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

Our last study began with these words addressed to us:

Isa 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

As we just read, our study today is a continuation of this sentiment. This is not bad news. Losing our false children and having our sorceries and enchantments burned out of us in this life is the greatest blessing any man can be granted by his Maker. However, that burning experience must first swallow up all our false doctrines and bring us to our wits’ end, and it can do so only through great suffering and pain. That ‘pain’ and psychological pressure begins only when we acknowledge the truth within our verses for today’s study:

Isa 48:1 HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

We need to take note of how the holy spirit uses the words ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ and then tells us that these “come forth out of the waters of Judah”. This is merely one example of the Biblical principle “the dream is one”. This principle of how we are to handle and understand the Word of God is revealed to us when the Lord used two separate dreams, using entirely different objects as types, to make the exact same point. This principle is used throughout scripture, and we must be aware that many times the different implements and characters used in scripture are all relaying the same message. There are literally dozens of types of Christ, and there are literally dozens of types of His anointed, His ‘Christ’.

The first dream was Pharaoh’s dream of seven very fat cows being consumed by seven very thin and starved cows which appeared none the better. The second dream was of seven very full and abundant ears of corn being consumed by seven drought-stricken ears of corn, which then also appeared none the better. This principle is applied time after time throughout scripture:

Gen 41:25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

Now we can understand that calling ourselves “of the holy city” and staying ourselves “upon the God of Israel… but not in Truth and righteousness” is one and the same hypocritical sin of wanting to be associated with the name of Christ but not do the things He says to do. “The dream… is one” and reveals to us what God is doing.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

This message is the same message articulated here in our study today:

Isa 48:2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.

‘The holy city’ and ‘The Lord of hosts’ are both associated with “the God of Israel” and we want His name, but we do not want to eat His food or wear His apparel. The Lord will have none of that. We were admonished against this spirit earlier is this same prophecy:

Isa 4:1 AND in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

“Our own bread” is our own doctrines (Joh 6:30-35), and “our own apparel” is our own righteousness, and our own way of life (Isa 64:6 and Rev 3:18).

Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

This study has to do with giving up our idols of our hearts. Any idol of our heart is detached from the Truth. Yet we think that our hearts’ idols, our false doctrines, can stand on their own and can save us when the need arises.

One ‘idol of the heart’ for many Christians is the false doctrine of so-called ‘theistic evolution’. Such broad-minded people are willing to give God credit for His creation as long as He does not claim to do it “suddenly”. But that is exactly what He does:

Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

This verse 3, along with Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:11, should serve to lay to rest once and for all the false doctrines of theistic evolution. The theory of evolution is simply not compatible with scripture in any form. When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He did so “suddenly.

Let the “evenings and mornings” of Genesis 1, the word "suddenly" here in Isaiah 48:3 and this verse in Exodus 20 be the last words on that subject:

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Verses 4 and 8 tell us that we obstinately and treacherously transgress the Lord’s commandments in order to cling to and defend the idols of our hearts, our false doctrines:

Isa 48:4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

And:

Isa 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

Notice that the Lord tells us, “I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass.” The only way the Lord can possibly know that we are all an obstinate, treacherous, “transgressor from the womb” is by Him making us to be so “from the womb”.

Denying this truth will not save us from our built-in irresistible inclination to sin. That inclination is given all men from “the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:4). We are utterly and hopelessly subject to the “law of sin and death” which is within our flesh (Rom 7:15-23).

It is an inexorable law which cannot be resisted, and as long as we resist that truth, we continue to dig ourselves into a deeper and deeper pit of self-righteousness and lying, false doctrines which are idols of our hearts. Job, a type of who we are, suffered the loss of all he had ever worked for, plus months of excruciatingly painful boils from head to toe just because he was determined to cling to his own righteousness and his own integrity of which he just naturally, as a type of each of us, had neither. Nevertheless, this is what his self-righteous beast proclaimed of himself:

Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Because the Lord predestines it to be so, His elect are granted their self-righteous wish: “Let mine enemies be as the wicked, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous” and we mercifully are dragged to see that it is we, ourselves who fill that bill:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

At the appointed time our eyes are opened, and we say with Job:

Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

The Lord wants us to acknowledge our self-righteousness in thinking that we have anything to do with what the Lord is doing within us:

Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Job was made to admit he had nothing to do with either his sins or his deliverance from the law of sin in his members. Our insistence on having some little part in our salvation does not deliver us from being made to confess that we have neither integrity nor righteousness of ourselves. Our hearts’ idols cannot save us. The exact opposite is true, and our thoughts, the idols of our hearts, separate us from the Truth of God’s sovereignty over things so apparently insignificant as the hairs of our heads and the sparrows that fall. Our hearts’ idols, which denies those Truths, will be destroyed, and our old man and his illusion and delusion of having something to contribute toward his salvation will both die and be destroyed in His fiery words which are the Truth.

This is the Truth:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

The fourth verse of this same chapter accords with verse one:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

‘The Lord makes the wicked for the day of evil’ is very clear and plain language, but Isaiah 63 is even more direct:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

If we are given the mind of Christ, we will apply these verses to ourselves first and foremost. Yes, these verses include all men, but unless we take them personally, they will have no impact upon us in this age, and our hope is to be judged now, in this age (Rom 8:18-30).

That is the message of our verses for today:

Isa 48:5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

This verse reveals that we must acknowledge the Lord’s total sovereignty and that our idols, our doctrines, are contrary to the Lord’s doctrines. His doctrines teach us He has known what we would do before we were even born, and He has worked “all of our days” and everything we would ever do “after the counsel of His own will… before there were any of them” (Psa 139:16 ASV, Rom 9:11 and Eph 1:11).

His doctrine teaches us that He knew us from “before the world began.”

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

This grace is not just randomly handed out. It was given to “us… before the world began”...

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

...But it does not come naturally for us to acknowledge the total sovereignty of God, and we just naturally fight to take credit for what the Lord does in our lives. Free will is an idol of our heart, and we cling to that idol with our lives. To quote Job:

Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

The entire book of Job is a commentary on the struggle to die to our own will, the will of our old man. The Lord’s rebuke of Job’s idol of self-righteousness begins in chapter one with the loss of all of Job’s possessions. It climaxes with the Lord’s rebuke of Job. The Lord’s rebuke symbolizes the destruction of our self-righteous old man and his idol of free will attributing Job’s righteousness to himself.

The story of Hezekiah taking credit for the supernatural overnight death of 185 thousand Assyrian soldiers typifies just how “obstinate” we are, and how natural it is for us to take credit for what God does for us (2Ki 19:35). The story of “all the congregation of the children of Israel” blaming Moses for the deaths of Korah and company resulting in the deaths of 14,700 more is a demonstration of our own treacherous transgressions:

Num 16:41 But on the morrow [after the earth swallowed up Korah and company] all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.

Num 16:49 Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah.

Knowing we are just this obstinate, the Lord has given us all these witnesses, including the disobedience of our original parents. The Lord has given us these witnesses against all the idols of our hearts “from the beginning”, and yet we still say it all happens to us because it was the result of our heart’s idol, which we call our own free will. That is what graven and molten images represent. They symbolize pride-filled idols of our hearts (Eze 14:1-9). Idols in scripture denote our false doctrines, which the Lord Himself makes us serve until He calls us out of that dark deception.

However, the Lord goes to even greater lengths to demonstrate that we are but clay in His hands (Jer 18:4), and that our will is just another work of His hands:

Isa 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

We think that we will “not… declare it” of our own will. We want to rob God of His glory and take it to ourselves, but there is no way we can get by with doing so. We could not hear “when you heard them not” because we had not been given spiritual ears with which to hear (Mat 13:10-15). So even our deceit and rebellion are actually a work of the Lord, just as Joseph explained to His brothers (Gen 45:4-8 and Gen 50:20).

“They are created now, and not from the beginning” is speaking of things “[we have] not… heard [and] did not know”. In other words, “They are created now and not from the beginning” is speaking of ‘things’ like salvation “by the faith of Jesus”. These “new things” are what the holy spirit calls “hidden wisdom… the wisdom of God in a mystery” which has been kept hidden from mankind and yet was “ordained before the world unto our glory” in Christ:

1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

The doctrine of Christ was unheard of before Christ's human ministry. Christ was a reformer, and He introduced “the time of reformation”:

Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

That is the meaning of our next verse:

Isa 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

This is what Christ referred to in:

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

“[Our] ear was not opened [to] the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven… the things of the spirit” because the Lord “knew [we] would deal treacherously”, just as King Hezekiah did in taking credit for the death of 185,000 Assyrian casualties in one night. The Lord knows all of this in advance because we are transgressors by nature “from the womb”. We take credit for the knowledge given to us as if that knowledge came of ourselves. We do so to such an extent that we are given “a thorn in the flesh” to keep us from being exalted above measure:

2Co 12:6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
2Co 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
2Co 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Gal 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of god, even as Christ Jesus.

Paul has followed in Christ’s footsteps and has held back nothing which the Lord revealed to him. He has freely given it all to us. Here is what both Christ and Paul have to say about sharing freely what they have been given from our heavenly Father:

Joh 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard [aorist tense] of my Father I have made known [aorist tense] unto you.

Act 20:27 For I [Paul] have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

“All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” is in the aorist tense because it is still taking place within “that which is written”. The fact that Christ Himself tells us…

Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

…Demonstrates that Christ is in the process of ‘guiding us into all ’. Much of the “many things [we] cannot bear” at the beginning of our walk with Christ were later revealed to Paul in “the abundance of revelations” given to him. It all built upon “that which is written”:

1Co 4:6 Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other.

Nothing we have done, and nothing in our pedigree, makes us worthy of being given this “abundance of revelations”. In and of ourselves we must see ourselves as anything but worthy to be so blessed. Christ said He was not good, Paul called himself ‘chief of sinners’, and we will be well served to be given that same humility and thank the Lord that He has not simply ‘cut us off’ for our pride-filled rebellious nature. There is only one reason for which the Lord is using us to His glory:

Isa 48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

We have heard and seen all the Lord has done in His Word and in our lives. Nothing here about anything we have done to cause Him to choose us. Quite the opposite, He calls and chooses us to, “good works which He has before ordained that we should walk in them.” We do not choose Him even though it appears from our perspective that we choose Him:

Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Any good works we choose or will to perform are “His workmanship”. Any good or wise choices we make are “His workmanship”. That especially includes His faith which He gives us:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of [our] works [our choices], lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Our choices and our good and bad works were all “before ordained”. We know this is so because Paul tells us our works were “before ordained” of God and because the book of Psalms tells us that every day of our lives was “written in His book before there were any of them”:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

What the Lord is telling us in this chapter of Isaiah is that He has told us of everything He did at the beginning and everything He has done since the beginning. He tells us of past events before they ever took place, and He tells us of “new things from this time, even hidden things, which thou have not known… lest we should say, Behold I knew them” (Isa 48:6-7. Yet we still resist declaring that it is He who has shown us these incredible revelations and that in fact it is He who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”:

Eph 1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things in Christ.
Eph 1:4 Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, for us to be holy and unblemished before him in love.
Eph 1:5 Who predestined us for sonship through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the desire of his will,
Eph 1:6 for appreciation of the glory of his grace, by which he blessed us in him who is beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, according to the wealth of his grace,
Eph 1:8 which he abounded for us in all wisdom and intelligence.
Eph 1:9 Having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his desire, which he purposed within himself
Eph 1:10 for an administration of the fullness of the times. To gather together all things in the Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth,
Eph 1:11 in him in whom also we obtained an inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the deliberation of his [own] will.
Eph 1:12 For us to be for appreciation of his glory, men who have first hoped in the Christ. (ACV)

I am as guilty as anyone of refusing to declare all of this. I was infuriated at the concept of a God whose sovereignty covered my every choice. Oh, if you had asked me if I believed God was sovereign I was say, “Of course I do!” and then I would go on to contradict myself by explaining that God has control over my overall actions just like a man who has a dog on a leash. God controls my life and has me on a leash, but He allows me to make many decisions on my own, just as a dog can go to one side and poop on a neighbor’s lawn or go to the other side of the walk and raise his leg on a fire hydrant. That was my definition of how God works “all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). I felt I was responsible for all my evil deeds, but God always brought me back to the middle of the sidewalk and kept me from going too far out of line. I did not believe for one moment that God was even concerned with what I considered to be the many unimportant details of life. However, is that concept in line with a God who wants us to know He is aware when a sparrow falls, who tells the deer when to have their young and who knows the very number of the hairs of our heads?

Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Mat 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Psa 29:9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

Is it not robbing God of His glory when we deny that He is in charge of the good and the evil in our lives? Is it not robbing Him of His glory when we take credit for our own sins, especially since He tells us that it is He who “makes us to err from His ways” and it is He who “hardens our hearts from His fear” (Isa 63:17)?

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

That is not a God who is not concerned with minor details. ‘All’ in this case means “all”:

Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

When the Lord tells us, “I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them,” how true are those words!

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. [“The hidden wisdom…” (1Co 2:7)]

1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

As Christ’s ambassadors, we are as “hidden” from this world as was Christ Himself. We have been shown many new things of which we knew nothing.

Isa 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

We will stop at this point and continue part two of this study next Sunday, Lord willing, and we will see what these “new things…even hidden things which [we] did not know” are.