The God Who Brings Us In

Isaiah calls down firey judgment on Moab in chapter 15. In the last post, we looked at how God wept over the decree while administering it. Now in Isaiah 16, God offers hope to these displaced people with no more boundary markers to define who they are. What is their hope? The Messiah who comes will bring them in. 

Isaiah 16:3–5 (ESV) “Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive; 4 let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, 5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.”

We again come to hope in the immediate aftermath of judgment. Moab will be judged and her sins paid for. But the displaced people will have a place to call home. In the very temple of God through the body of Christ, the faithful son of David who came to reconcile the world. 

Surely there is still Moabite blood in the world. It may be in you. If you are a Christian, your faith is a direct fulfillment of ancient prophecy. It is also a reminder that God came to save us and give us rebirth in a new home. 

What kind of people are these Moabites? The rest of the chapter shows us. And these words give hope to all who may feel too far gone for God. 

Moab is proud, arrogant, and insolent.

Isaiah 16:6 (ESV) We have heard of the pride of Moab— how proud he is!— of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.

I can think of few things more intolerable than the pride of man. In fact, every other sin just may have pride at its core. You feel you are better than others and so you steal and covet, lie to cover your tracks, and put those who you should honor below you in your mind. 

Later in the chapter, God offers a stern warning to Moab in this regard. 

Isaiah 16:12 (ESV) And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

Moab is a picture of the praying Pharisee in the temple next to the tax collector. His self-centered and prideful prayer go unanswered that day. 

In light of such accounts and stories the question might be posed: do we write them off? God doesn't. 

Do we have scriptural proof? Yes. Notice how Isaiah 16 ends. 

Isaiah 16:14 (ESV) But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”

The assessment of her future looks bleak. But look closer. The text mentions "those who remian". They will be "few and feeble." That's a good starting point for salvation. You don't consider yourself mighty and great. Instead, there is a crushed spirit where God will come to lift you up and bring you comfort. 

The good news is prideful people have a path to salvation just as everyone else. The same path every sinner has - through the gate of Christ Jesus who has taken our sins upon Himself at the cross. But this salvation comes through the pain of humiliation and the undeserved grace of the God who humbled Himself to make it possible.