12.11.19 Isaiah 21:11-12
11 An oracle concerning Dumah:
Someone calls to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?”
12 The watchman replies,
“Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again.”
An oracle - it comes from the Hebrew word ??????? (Muss-ah) - which means a burden or a revelation from God. Often the two go hand in hand. When God revealed something to his prophets, it usually wasn’t good news. The oracle put a burden on the prophet, because he had to relay the bad news, and sometimes that put him in danger. Often times the oracles were mysterious and they needed to be interpreted. Last Sunday we learned about the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had about a tree being chopped down. He needed Daniel to interpret the oracle from God, that Nebuchadnezzar was going to be dethroned for a time. This is how God has chosen to communicate with people from time to time.
Jesus did the same thing with his parables. In Mark 4 Jesus said, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;
The book of Revelation seems to have that mysterious vibe to it as well. It needs to be interpreted. It reminds me of watching the movie The Hobbit. In one particular scene Master Baggins and the dwarves made it to a side of a hill with a secret entrance, but nobody could figure out how to interpret the riddle at first. Finally they figured it out just in the nick of time, and they were able to enter.
So in today’s text God offers an oracle type of riddle to the people of Edom. Only one person can really interpret it for them - Isaiah. He is the watcher. The watcher stands at the top of the hill. He can see for miles and miles. He is put there to watch out for any impending danger and let the people know. Today we come to listen to this oracle in our Advent service in preparation for Judgment Day.
An oracle concerning Dumah:
What is Dumah? Where is Dumah? Well, it seems to be a simple juxtaposition of three letters that spell Edom in the Hebrew. So instead of E-dom, it is changed to Du-mah. Edom was the name of the region just south of Israel which was inhabited by Esau’s descendants. Edom was another name for Esau. Esau and his whole family voluntarily moved south after Jacob came back to the Promised Land. Edom was a more barren area. It wasn’t the choice land of Israel. Whereas Esau accepted his lot in life and made amends with Jacob, his descendants didn’t seem to be too happy with it. They were jealous of Israel and would sometimes attack. So Isaiah referred to Edom as Dumah. Dumah means a silent and dark type of death, and that was symbolic of what Edom was going through and where Edom was headed, into a dark and silent death.
Things were turning dark on the world scene in the Middle East. If I have my history correct, the Persians were starting to take over the region. A king by the name of Tiglath Pileser had already conquered the area of Babylon, and he was marching to the west. Israel was about to fall, and so was Edom. They were dark times. The Northern Kingdom of Israel ended up being conquered and taken captive in 722 B.C., and this section of Isaiah seems to have been written as the Assyrian threat was looming large. Darkness was coming on the land.
Someone calls to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?”
Seir seems to have been a region of Edom. They were worried. Twice they ask Isaiah, “Watchman, what is left of the night?”
We’ve never seen such a threat like this in America. In Europe, back in Luther’s time, the Muslims were invading from the east. It was a real threat to their lives and Europe almost fell. In World War II, the Germans had threatened to take over Europe and were very close to doing so. We haven’t had to face anything like that here in America since the Revolution took place in the last 1700’s.
We have a different threat here in America, a threat of darkness from within. We are losing our faith. Christianity is on the decline and the sun is setting. I’ll never forget when the White House put the rainbow colors on front of it. It marked in me an obvious sign that America has turned a corner. She has lost even the vestiges of faith and gone on to promote and celebrate open immorality. Things have turned very dark.
Darkness has another effect on people. Think of Jesus’ parable of the five foolish and five wise virgins. They are trying to stay awake in the middle of the night, and half of them fall asleep. Our darkness isn’t over an invading army from the outside, it is from an indifferent army on the inside that has put down its arms. It has stopped fighting against sin and the devil. We want to be entertained. We don’t want to repent. We want to fit in. We want to be comfortable. We want to enjoy life. With all of the benefits of CBD oil in marijuana, many others are going to use the weed as an escape from reality and live their lives getting high. Others are running from one sports venue to the next. Still others are working themselves to death. Any talk of repentance is called hateful. The darkness is closing in, and many are falling asleep as it the darkness grows darker.
Some are scared of what is coming on our country. We too ask, “Watchman, what is left of the night?” The question is asked twice. People are anxious. People are scared. It means, “When are things going to turn around? When will this evil subside? How much worse is it going to get?” We want Jesus to come and rescue us from this world. Watchman, what of the night?
Edom was genuinely afraid of the Assyrian threat. They looked to Isaiah for revelation! They wanted to know when it would end. But what did this oracle tell them? Isaiah cryptically said to them, “You are Dumah, dying a silent and dark death.” This revelation doesn’t seem to offer them any hope whatsoever. Why not? It’s one thing to ask God to get rid of the darkness, but it’s another thing to try to find out why the darkness happened in the first place. Edom simply wanted the watchman to get rid of the darkness without, without examining the darkness within.
I think of an instance in high school that happened to me. I was part of the student council, and as part of the council we were given the duty of filling the pop machines in the commons area. Well, the student council then thought it was their privilege to treat themselves to some of the pop, which could be considered as stealing. It was one thing to drink a pop or two, but this eventually progressed to some council members actually taking cases of pop home with them. As a consequence, one of the student council members reported what was happening to the authorities at school. This led to the whole student council being brought before the board of education and subject to a suspension for stealing pop. I remember one of the mothers of one of my classmates coming in and saying something to the effect of, “Can’t we just pay a fine and be done with it?” She didn’t want to even really discuss what landed us in front of the board in the first place or what we had done wrong. She was embarrassed and a bit angry that her child was part of the scandal. They kindly and gently spoke to her about why we were there. They wanted us to recognize what we had done wrong and why we were being disciplined for stealing pop from school.
At a funeral I am able to offer great words of comfort to family members, some of whom haven’t been in church for years. They might even say to themselves, “I need to get back to church.” But that would cause a change in routine. Jesus works for some temporary comfort, but that is all.
Here’s another example. I’m always excited when people want to take the Bible Information Class. But a part of me worries when it is done with the encouragement that the parent will get a discount on tuition. Now I realize that motives will never be pure without faith. But I hope that through the process of the class the desire for the true light of Christ will come. The same could be said of someone who joins just for the sake of a spouse or a fiance. Why are you joining a church? Is it simply to say, “I’m a member of church.” Is it because you think that by joining a church you will get special treatment from God? Or is it because you found Jesus and the light of salvation here? Why are you seeking the light?
12 The watchman replies,
“Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again.”
When the Assyrian army came crashing through the northern kingdom, they got all the way to the walls of Jerusalem. Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, and the LORD delivered them by putting 186,000 Assyrians to death with the angel of death in one night. The LORD also then spared the Assyrian army from heading further south into Edom. Morning came, the problem was solved, but Isaiah said the night would be there too. Eventually roving bands of raiders would head into Edom and make it a Dumah too - a silent land of death. So the light of morning didn’t save them eternally. It only prolonged the inevitable.
If you only come to Jesus to seek your temporary problems, to fix your marriage or help with your finances, sooner or later the darkness will come again. You are only prolonging the inevitable, because you live in a dark and dying world. If you don’t seek salvation from God’s wrath through faith in Christ you will only end up in the eternal darkness of heaven.
But what did Isaiah encourage the Edomites to do as he spoke this cryptic message that was hard to understand?
If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”
In the Hebrew his message is very short and concise. Ask. Return. Come. If you are seeking true answers, then come back and ask more questions. That’s what the disciples did when Jesus spoke in parables and they didn’t understand what He was saying. They asked more questions. They sought clarification, and Jesus gladly answered their questions! They wanted MORE, especially when they didn’t understand. It proved to Jesus they were SERIOUS about learning. This is what God told the Israelites as well in Deuteronomy 4:29, Seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. God wanted the Israelites to go to the Word of God and find answers. Isaiah wanted to reveal more to the Edomites. He wanted them to seek the LORD. This is what God wants us to do as well, especially when we have questions.
When we dig deeper into the word then we see the true light - the light of who we are as sinners - and the light of who God is in Jesus Christ. John wrote, “These words are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have LIFE in His name.” When we dig into the word we have to find Jesus, because all of God’s Word is meant to point back to Him. When we see the light that leads us to Jesus as our Savior, then we are prepared for Jesus to come.
Just this past Sunday Dr. Peil took us into a tour of our universe. He explained how far we are from the sun and talked about the planets and the solar systems. It was amazing to be taken outside of our planet and to just see a glimpse of the beauties of our world. He does a beautiful job of cracking open the universe to us in simple terms and pictures.
The same rings true of the Word of God, when you really dig into it you see how God doesn’t leave us confused and only speak in riddles. He explains the riddles of life with clear words of explanation in the Bible that point us to Jesus as our Savior. The more you dig into it, the more amazing it becomes. But He wants us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on finding. Don’t just throw your hands up in the air and say, “I don’t know.” Seek the truth and He will reveal it to you in Christ. Don’t be a Dumah.
As darkness seems to close in our world, now more than ever people will be wondering, “When is this all going to end?” The children of America are being bred to fear climate change and natural disasters. Everything is gloom and doom when you hear the news. I feel sorry for the children of this world who are being raised to believe nothing but gloom and doom. But we have the light that can give eternal life and salvation - all found in that God who became man in the virgin Mary - who came to give life and salvation through the cross. The God who is light and salvation went through the darkness of death and damnation, all so that He could pay for our sins and solve the riddle of death. We have a promise of an eternal day in heaven through faith in Christ crucified for us on the cross. This is the only true answer to the riddle, “What of the night?” Jesus has conquered it through His death and resurrection. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Amen.
