14. The Way of Thy Paths

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Hymns: RHC 565 Have You Counted the Cost 414 Is Your All on the Altar? 306 Pass Me Not

Isaiah 3:12, 16-26

12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths…16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: 17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, 21 The rings, and nose jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. 24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. 25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. (Isa. 3:16-26 KJV)

The Way of Thy Paths

OUTLINE

(1) Choose Not the Prideful Materialistic Pathway (v16-17)

(2) Sorrow Will Eventually Come (v18-24)

(3) Final Desolation (v25-26)

INTRODUCTION

Where we walk and how we walk will determine where we will end up. In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian was fleeing the City of Destruction – Sodom and Lot, so that he may find his way to the Celestial City, depicted well this journey of life which Bunyan entitled “The Dangerous Journey”.

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

This word translated “train up” is used only once in the Old Testament. It is for this usage in the training of a child. The word “train” has the idea of inauguration and initiation. It means to develop, to form the habits, thoughts or behaviour of a child or person by discipline and instruction.

This word “Train Up” is in imperative, it is a sacred commandment from the Lord for a commitment by the present generation of adults in the training of godly men and women in the next generation. Child training is a holy calling. 

“Initiate the child according to the mouth of his way” or “at the opening of his path” is the literal translation, when he begins a life that journey of life he is equipped with a series of instructions on how he should conduct himself in every step he takes. The parent is to show the child his duties, the dangers, and the blessings of the path, giving him directions on how to perform the duties, how to escape dangers, and how to secure blessings, which all lie before him. Fix this on his mind by daily inculcation, the process is slow, steady and sure till it becomes a habit, this is the way, son, you should go, this is what you should do.

The blueprint for this sacred training is the Holy Scriptures. The presupposition is that parents themselves are godly and are equipped with godly habits to give to their children. This parental mission involves first the training of the parents. Moses gave this instruction to parents before they entered the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 6 to hold fast to God’s commandments themselves and to impart them to their children and even grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2 “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.”

Along the way, Israel lost her way.

Israel’s situation was that they had erring leaders and erring people. They have forsaken the way of the LORD. 

The prophet articulated it well in his exhortation to Judah in Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV) Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

God’s prophet has declared that a great national calamity is at hand. “Make inquiries; stand in the ways; ask the passers-by. Your country was once prosperous and blessed. Try to learn what the paths trod in those days which led your ancestors to happiness. Choose them, and walk earnestly therein, and find thereby rest for your souls.” [Barnes]

The failure in Israel was that their guides, who should direct them in the right way, put them out of the way (v12): “Those who lead thee (the princes, priests, and prophets) mislead thee; they cause thee to err.” Either they preached to them that which was false and corrupt, or, if they preached that which was true and good, they contradicted it by their practices, and the people would soon follow a bad example than a good exhortation. Thus, they destroyed the ways of their paths, pulling down with one hand what they built up with the other. [Joseph A. Alexander]

The right doctrine has to be followed by the right practice. Words and actions, must match up. In Israel, this was wanting.

The prophet Isaiah directs his attention to the women here from v16-26, resuming the thread of thought which had been dropped or broken at the close of v12, and recurs to the undue predominance of female influence, but particularly to the prevalent excess of female luxury, not only sinful in itself, but as a chief cause of the violence and social disorder previously mentioned, and therefore to be punished by disease, widowhood, and shameful exposure.

(1) Choose Not the Prideful Materialistic Pathway (v16-26)

16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: 17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.

Everything is designed to attract attention – posture, demeanour, movement, ornament. They were haughty (arrogant, prideful). It was not their luxurious lifestyle that Isaiah condemns but their arrogant spirit which prompted it. [J. Alec Motyer]

Haughtiness is again before us. Isaiah has already condemned the “proud, arrogant deeds” of the people and their haughty demeanour. When the women are wholly vain and self-centred, the cancer of moral decay is truly consuming the nation’s heart.

Proper adornment and true beauty in women should be a reflection of the glory of God. When women cultivate and cherish beauty only for themselves, they are infringing upon and detracting from the glory and beauty that belong to Him. That ordinary women of the world should be vainglorious might be expected. But the daughters of Zion, women who live in the city of God, under the very shadow of the Temple, who should have set the example of the beauty of holiness, these are haughty and walk with outstretched necks. 

Is Isaiah, however, one who can see no place in life for the beauty of adornment? Does he condemn beauty and ornament as such? That is not the case. It is not the various articles of jewellery in themselves which are reached by his condemnation. Something more serious has gripped his attention and drawn down upon itself his condemnation. In Jerusalem there was an inner pride and corruption of the heart which manifested itself outwardly. That it was which attracted the prophet’s censure. [Edward J. Young]

Isaiah expresses the true core of the problem – haughtiness. First, let the heart be right with God, and other matters will then take care of themselves. To bring out the true situation Isaiah uses a verb whose force may be expressed, “They have become haughty, and how to continue in that state.”

Inasmuch as they were haughty, they walk with outstretched necks. An affected position, to be sure, but in such a position they can hold their heads high, and thus call attention to themselves. “To stretch out the neck” served in the ancient world as a succinct expression of haughtiness. There is an expression “Much money can make the neck long.” 

When haughtiness is thus displayed, it must not go unnoticed. With their eyes the women ogle or flirt, in a desire to attract attention.

Walking and mincing as they go, going and tripping as they walk. With their feet they rattle bangles and so make a tinkling sound. 

These were women with concern. They were concerned about their appearance and with drawing attention to that appearance. About the utter lack of justice in the land, and about the apostasy from God, however, they had no concern. Little did it matter to them that the poor were objects of abominable tyranny. So self-centred and puffed up where these women that they were only concerned to call attention to themselves. When the women of a nation have turned to such an extent away from God, the end of that nation cannot be far away.

V16-17 And the LORD said (in addition to what goes before, as if beginning a new section of he prophecy), because the daughters of Zion (the women of Jerusalem, with special reference to those connected with the leading men) are lofty (in their mien and carriage) and walk with an outstretched neck (literally, stretched of the neck, so as to see taller), and gazing (ogling, leering, looking wantonly) with their eyes, and with a tripping walk they walk, and with their feet, they make a tinkling (that is, with the metallic rings or bands worn around their ankles), therefore the Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, and their nakedness the LORD will uncover (that is, he will reduce them to a state the very opposite of their present pride and finery). 

It is a path of loss, disappointment and ultimate anguish.

1 Peter 3:1-4 (KJV) 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 coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 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.

Wives are exhorted to respect the headship of the husband in the home. This is God’s order for the home. Honouring this will be a testimony to him of her faith in Christ. 

Reverential respect for their husbands is undergirded by the fear of God. 

F. B. Meyer notes: “Plenty are there whose outward body is richly decked, but whose inner being is clothed in rags; whilst others, whose garments are worn and threadbare, are all glorious within.”

Modern fashions are not designed to encourage spirituality.

Jesus gave the example of the rich man who pulled down his barns to build bigger barns. This man thought to himself, “…there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:18b-19). God pronounced judgment upon such a man: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20). Indeed, a man who lays up treasure for himself is not rich towards God (Luke 12:21). 

Jesus described riches as deceitful because they fail to give true and lasting happiness, comfort and security to their pursuers. They promise much but satisfy little. They are deceptive. They do not satisfy the true need of the soul. This idol often blinds the heart, making it insensitive to the Gospel. More often than not, those who possess material prosperity deny the existence of God. They ascribe success to self or factors other than God. Hearts deluded by riches are often full of conceit. Indeed, a man who lays up treasure for himself is not rich towards God (Luke 12:21). 

God gives His Word, and His Word is published, taught, imbibed and practised. There is spiritual fruit that comes when God’s Word falls on the fertile ground of the heart as we learn from the Parable of the Sower given by our Lord Jesus – Matthew 13:8 (KJV) But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

Isaiah’s accusation was no vain charge. The women were haughty as he had accused. For that very reason, the Lord would punish them in the severe manner.

The women were haughty, the punishment would hence be sure. In the place of their beauty, they will be a scab, for the LORD will smite them. Walking about in their finery and ornamental headdresses, the daughters of Zion will be stricken, so that their hair, which is their glory, will fall out. The One who will act is the LORD, the God of power. The proud women of Jerusalem have their day and walk in their utter lack of concern for the condition of the nation, but the One in whose hand their destines lie will in the future assert Himself and punish with a strong hand. By means of their conduct, God’s punishment will turn their pride and shame into something contemptible. Isaiah does not say how this will be done, but it is likely that it is to take place at the hands of rude and rough men when like a flood the enemy comes in upon Jerusalem and Judah. Those who delight in immodest exposure will be rewarded with immodest exposure at the hands of vile men. [EJ Young]

(2) Sorrow Will Eventually Come (v18-24)

18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, 21 The rings, and nose jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. 24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well-set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

In the second contrast life’s ease is lost in sorrow. Isaiah itemizes the luxury they now enjoy (v18-23) but, we note, does not condemn it as such. It is no sin to enjoy life’s good. Their sin is their arrogance and pride in spirit (v16). But instead (v24) sounds out five times, like a death knell, their ease will be exchanged for mourning. V24 are deliberate signs of the abstention from body care associated with mourning. Jerusalem’s girls had devoted themselves to beauty and now even that is gone. Life’s most cherished fulfilments are negated by sin. 

(3) Final Desolation (v25-26)

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

A sad ending for the prideful. A sad ending in the pursuit of such a life. 

CONCLUSION

May it be a warning for the people of God. Amen.