In Peter Allison's sermon titled 'The Throne Established in Lovingkindness,' the focus is on the lessons from Isaiah's oracles against various Gentile nations, covering chapters 14 and 15. The sermon emphasizes two key lessons: the seriousness of sin and the reality of God's wrath, and the undeserved nature of God's grace. Allison discusses human nature's tendency to ignore or downplay unseen or future consequences, opting for immediate gratification instead. He contrasts God's rod of wrath, which leads to total destruction for the Gentiles, with His rod of chastening for His covenant people, which leads to repentance. The sermon highlights God's preservation of a remnant as a testament to His grace. Mount Zion is described metaphorically as the church, a refuge for God's people. The sermon also addresses the historical and adversarial relationship between Israel and Moab, illustrating Moab's pride and resistance to God's call for repentance. Despite the grim outlook for the Gentile nations, God extends grace, emphasizing the necessity of humility for receiving it.

And our scripture reading as Isaiah. Chapter fourteen I begin at verse twenty eight. We'll be moving in through chapter fifteen. Here God's word. This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died.

Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken. For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery, flying serpent. The firstborn of the four will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety. I will kill your roots with famine, and it will slay your remnant. Whale, oh gate, cry, oh city!

All you of Philistia are dissolved, for smoke will come from the north, and no one will be alone in his appointed times. What will they answer, the messengers of the nation, that the Lord has founded Zion? And the poor of his people take refuge in it the burden against Moab because in the night are of Moab is laid waste and destroyed because in the night Kerr of Moab is laid waste and destroyed. He has gone up to the temple and Dibbon, to the high places to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Mediba.

On all their heads will be baldness and every beard cut off and in their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth on the tops of their houses and in their streets. Everyone will wail, weeping bitterly. Heshbon and Elia will cry out. Their voice shall be heard as far as Jehaz. Therefore the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out, his life will be burdensome to him.

My heart will cry out for Moab. His fugitive shall flee to Zohar, like a three-year-old heifer, for by the ascent of Luhith they will go up with weeping. For in the way of Horonim, they will raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate. For the green grass is withered away, the grass spills, there is Nothing green.

Therefore the abundance they have gained and that they have laid up They will carry away to the brook of the willows for the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab It's wailing to egg lame and it's willing to beer elim For the waters of dimmin will be full of blood because I will bring more upon Dimun, lions upon him who escapes from Moab and on the remnants of the land." May his testimonies be our delight and our counselors. Father in heaven, grant to us the spirit of illumination. Grant to us understanding of your word. Instruct us that we may be wise unto salvation and turn away from foolishness. Enable us, Lord, this morning to see you as the mighty God, the truth.

And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may faithfully proclaim your word. Through Jesus Christ we ask, Amen. Well, these next ten chapters or so contain God's oracles against a number of Gentile nations that did not know the Lord. And they contain, as we've seen the small sample this morning, they contain one calamity after another. One pronouncement of woe followed by another, with very little hope extended to them.

And so we need to ask ourselves, why are these passages here? Why does the Lord want me to know about the endless judgments that would fall on pagan nations? Nations that today, in our day, have been long buried and forgotten for thousands of years. What are we to learn from these passages? I think there are two things, there are many things we may look at, but two that I would mention this morning.

Two that I would set before you. First, we learn the seriousness of sin and the reality of God's wrath. Because you see, The human mind tends to deny or ignore or downplay the reality of negative consequences that we cannot see or that we have not yet experienced. That's human nature, fallen human nature. It's one of the most reliable features of human nature or our psyche.

And it's a very frequently observed aspect of human nature. We tend to favor immediate consequences or tangible rewards and comforts over things that are delayed, over delayed consequences. If a negative outcome is abstract, if it's unseen, if it's in the far distant future, our mind, our brain exponentially discounts its weight compared to something that is right in front of us right now. We also tend to ignore things that we haven't experienced. How many times have you learned a new word and then immediately noticed that word being frequently used?

I know I have noticed that often. Well, that word was always being used with the same frequency. It just went over our heads or through our ears and we didn't catch it. It was there. And so in the same way if we have no personal experience with a negative consequence, if we can't see something happening, the brain treats it like it's non-existent.

It lacks salience to us. And most of us tend to have an optimistic bias toward normal. We make decisions on the basis that things will continue as they always have continued. And that catastrophe or a severe penalty is unlikely. That's our blindness as fallen humans.

And so when consequences are not immediately visible to us, whether it's financial debt, whether it's regarding health or whether it's regarding moral judgments. Things that require us to think in the abstract, or things that require us to listen to the words of an authority that are speaking to us. We tend to discount those things. We tend to rationalize away the risks. We want to suppress uncomfortable truths.

And it takes a very disciplined act of the will to go against those desires, those basic instincts. And even the wisest of fools engage in this suppression of the obvious, of future judgments. About 13 years ago, a Nobel Prize winner in economics and an op-ed columnist for the New York Times by the name of Paul Krugman claimed that the federal budget deficit was a problem that for all practical purposes to a large degree was solved. And while he of course acknowledged the obvious fact that we did have a rather large federal deficit due to this depressed economy that we were in, he brazenly claimed that it's good to run deficits in this kind of an economy. That's what you do.

That's how you solve that kind of an economy. And he foolishly predicted that the deficit would come down as the economy recovered. That was about 13 years ago. And of course, it's only increased by 300 percent since then. See, this is a classic example of a supposedly learned and wise man suppressing a very uncomfortable but obvious truth.

Spending more money while taking in less does not decrease the debt. But you see that simple, obvious fact is routinely suppressed, ignored. Because we'd rather not think about the inevitable consequences that will follow. And so we can fall into the same trap of downplaying the unseen or undesirable consequences about things that we haven't experienced. And these oracles against these various nations are the gracious revelation of our Heavenly Father to impress upon us the seriousness of sin and the reality of God's wrath against it.

You see, without these examples, without God coming to us and taking us as it were by the lapel, the shoulders, and saying listen, this is what happens. Without that, we would be like Paul Krugman on the federal deficit, downplaying the significance and seriousness of sin and the reality of God's wrath against it. See, a prudent man perceives evil and hides himself but what the simple they they press on ignoring suppressing the obvious problem in front of them, and the Proverbs says they're punished. And so these scriptures then give us the wisdom to foresee evil. That's the first reason that these are important for us.

But secondly, we learn that God's grace is truly undeserved. It's truly undeserved. Judah committed many of the same sins that the surrounding nations committed. Some of their kings made their sons passed through fire offered their children as human sacrifices to demons and all the horrific things that go with that. But the Lord made a difference between his people and those who were not his people.

They both faced God's rod. For those outside of the covenant it was a rod of wrath that produced total destruction and a complete cutting off from the earth. But for his people, that rod was a rod of chastening that produced repentance. God preserved a remnant even. He didn't preserve everyone.

At one point remember the Israelite nation could field as many as a million and a half soldiers under David and and in the height of their kingdom But you remember from our reading last week of that million and a half people, million and a half soldiers able to carry a sword, out of that there were fewer than 50, 000 that returned to the land after the captivity. And we don't read that they were all capable soldiers. Some of them were probably old men, not probably. Just a tiny remnant, but God did preserve a remnant. There may have been some faithful that remained in Babylon, but most were lost, cut off in unbelief.

Psalm 37 summarizes this very succinctly. It said, for those blessed by him shall inherit the earth but those cursed by him and God curses those who defy him Those cursed by Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread." You see, for the covenant people of God, the rod of chastening separates the wheat from the tares.

And what's the difference? It's only grace. The undeserved favor of God through Jesus Christ, it's only grace that separates those two. That separates those two. And so we come then to this burden of Philistia.

After this lengthy oracle concerning Babylon, which included an affirmation of the destruction of Assyria, there's a warning to the nation of Philistia. Don't rejoice in the downfall of the nation that has so cruelly oppressed you. Don't rejoice. Verse 29, for out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent. Instead of a serpent, now you're going to be dealing with a fiery flying serpent.

And where you may have been able to run away from the serpent crawling on the ground, this fiery flying serpent is a different matter. Now I can't think of a more depressing word to a people who have been cruelly oppressed than that. Though their oppressor will be removed, things will only get worse for them. But right in the middle of this terrible news is a note of comfort to God's people. In verse 30 is a quick jump.

The firstborn of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety. And later on, it's clear that this is my poor, my poor, God's people. So this needs to be understood in the context of what we looked at last week. Verse 24 establishes that the Lord purposes And verse 27 established that the Lord has the power to carry out those purposes. Both are important.

You see, power without the purpose for good is terrifying, but a purpose for good without the power to accomplish it is ultimately extremely disappointing but God does purpose good for his people and he is the all-powerful God will bring his purposes to pass As Jeremiah comforted the people he said, I know the thoughts that I have towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you." In his second epistle, Peter cites Noah and Lot as examples of God's purpose and his power to deliver the righteous and to judge the wicked at the same time in the same event. 2 Peter 2 for if God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them down into hell and deliver them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah. The same in the same event in the same act he did both at the same time and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes but delivered righteous lot.

Then this is the evidence Peter says this is the evidence the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. And so Isaiah says right in the midst here, the firstborn of God's people, of the poor, will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety. But then he goes right back to speaking about the Philistines again. God assures his people that they will have food and have his protection to be able to sleep safely. Psalm 33 says, behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

You see Isaiah goes on to say and that Immediately after that Philistia on the other hand is going to die off in the famine and their remnant will be slain But the Lord knows how to keep his people alive and to feed them in the famine But for Philistia there is no salvation and no remnant. The Lord has the Lord's purposes for the wicked. The Lord purposes destruction for the wicked. Their roots, Isaiah says, are destroyed by famine, so there is nothing to grow back when the famine is over. If the roots are preserved, the top may die off, but once the water comes back, then the roots can send forth the plant again.

But God says the roots are going to be killed off. Psalm 34 says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. No more roots, no more recovery, no remnant. The righteous cry out, though, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

This oracle concludes with God's purpose for His church. God preserves His people in Zion. Zion, you remember, is used to refer to the city of Jerusalem. It's also used to refer to the mountain on which Jerusalem is built. But most often, it is used to refer to God's covenant people.

Those with whom God has a special relationship. Look at Psalm 48. It says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in his holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God is in her palaces. He is known as her refuge.

As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish it forever. That's the city of God that we mentioned last week in opposition to the city of man. And so verse 11 of Psalm 48 says, let Mount Zion rejoice. He's not talking about dirt there. He's talking about God's people, God's covenant people.

Let them rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of your judgments. Because of your judgments. Mark, walk about Zion. Now he's going back to this city, this fortress, this temple, this temple where God dwells.

Walk about Zion, go all around her, count her towers, mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces that you may tell it to the generation following. He's describing his church there in these figurative terms as this beautiful structure that was sitting on top of Mount Zion. For this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death. So when he's calling Mount Zion to rejoice, it's the daughters of Zion.

It's his people. In saying that God is in her palaces. It's just saying that God is dwelling with his people. And so Zion here is the covenant people of God. It's the church.

And this figure is carried into the New Testament where we read in Hebrews 12. But you have come where? To Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. That's Mount Zion. We've come to the General assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect Those who have died in the face To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things Than that of Abel and so Mount Zion when we got when Isaiah says here that the Lord has founded Zion, and His people shall take refuge in it, it's saying that God has founded His church, those who are united to Christ.

And since they are in Christ, the rock, they will never be destroyed no one can even reach them they are safe they're secure it's a refuge Of those that are united to Him, Jesus said in John 10, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand no one Will be able to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ Many have tried And many can continue to try But it's a futile effort It has always failed it will always it will always fail And the harder that people try to destroy her, The stronger she becomes. And so it's here in Zion, in the church, that God's people are protected from the wrath of God, just like Noah was protected in the ark. And so Isaiah next turns his prophetic thunder on Moab. Moab is a nation with a long, often adversarial relationship to Israel.

These are the descendants of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter. After Lot's wife, remember, was turned to a pillar of salt. Then his daughters were afraid for posterity, because remember their whole family had been killed off in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their siblings and any other descendants that Lot had. So they felt they needed to raise up a progeny for Lot. So they're not the descendants of Abraham, but they are cousins to Abraham, descending from Shem through Abraham's brother.

And when the Israelites were traveling from Egypt to Canaan, remember Moab refused to allow them to pass through the land. And since God did not give the land of Moab to Israel because God said he gave it to Lot, they were forbidden from harassing Moab in any way. Now the nations that occupied the land God was giving them, God defeated them before the Israelites. But Moab, the Moabites, God had given that land to them, and so God said you cannot harass them, which meant that they had to go around Moab to the east. So if you look on your map there you can see north is up and the Israelites are coming from the south and they wanted permission to pass through the land of Moab.

They wanted to take the direct route, the King's Highway. This was a major north-south route in the ancient world, which ran along the high, fertile central plateau of Moab. There was sufficient rainfall, good soil. There was an established infrastructure of cities and wells, and so passing through this land would have provided a relatively easy path, easier path, for Israel. Instead, they were forced to take the desert plateau and to go around Moab to the east.

And passing, and this was a significantly more arduous route than the direct route through the highlands. The land to the east was in the rain shadow of the Moabite Mountains. The terrain is harsh, it's arid, it's prone to extreme temperature fluctuations. There were no reliable natural springs that meant securing bread and water would be much more difficult. There were also geographic obstacles, deep canons such as the Arnan Wadi.

I had a picture of it there, but you just have to imagine, oh, this wadi, the cliffs rise over 1, 700 feet from the river valley. And so moving north to south across these steep and jagged canyons would be difficult under any circumstances, but not being able to use the king's highway through the land place an even greater burden on them. And once Israel had gone around the land of Moab and they defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, at Heshbon. And you see Heshbon is listed on that map. It's sort of outside of Moab.

That's because that land was taken from Moab by Sihon. After Israel had gone around them, they came back, cut back across Moab at the Arnon River Valley. Then Moab became deathly afraid of Israel, because they saw what they did to Sihon and so Balak the king of Moab got together with the Edomites or the Midianites and they hired Balaam to come out and curse Israel numbers 22 says now Balaak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. These are the children that they had just refused passage through. And of course when the curse failed, because God did not allow Balaam to curse Israel, then the Moabites induced Israelite men into idolatry and sexual immorality at Peor, resulting in a divine plague that led to the slaughter of thousands of Israelites.

And you can read about that in Numbers 25. And so this This event established Moab as a perpetual adversary, and because of their actions, God declared in Deuteronomy 23 that no Moabite could enter the assembly of the Lord for 10 generations because they failed to meet the Israelites with bread and water, and they hired Balaam to curse Israel. This is the land of Moab that God is bringing an oracle to. Under the time of the judges, a little later on, under King Eglon, Moab actually oppressed Israel for 18 years until Ehud assassinated Eglon and led to a military victory for Israel. It was in the midst of this period of judges that Ruth, the Moabite woman, abandoned her people and her gods to embrace the God of Israel.

And she became part of the line from which David would come, through whom the Messiah would come. You see, God's covenant, membership in God's covenant is determined by faith, not biological lineage. Membership in the covenant is by faith, not biological lineage. Under King David, Moab was subjugated. David executed a significant portion of their military strength and forced them to pay tribute.

They were completely defeated before him. After the death of King Ahab, Moab rebelled against the northern kingdom of Israel. And 2 Kings 3 describes a coalition of forces of the northern kingdom of under Jehoram of Judah the southern kingdom under Jehoshaphat and some help from Edom and and Elisha they attacked the Moabites and they they had some success The Moabites fled before them and they entered their land. They killed a number of Moabites. They destroyed their cities.

They ruined a lot of land. They stopped up the springs. They cut down good trees. But it says that they left the stones of Kir-Haraseth intact. And you can see that city there on your map.

It's the capital city of Moab. However, the slingers, the second king says, surrounded and attacked it. And when the king of Moab saw the battle was too fierce, He took 700 men who drew the sword to break through to the king of Edom, but he could not. And so then he took his oldest son and offered him as a sacrifice, as a burnt offering. And there was great indignation against Israel.

So Israel, it says, departed and returned to their own land. There was a stone discovered in 1868 called the Mesha Stella, or the Moabite stone. And it provides sort of an extra biblical corroboration, or it's the king of Moab, King Mesher, records his version of events. And he claimed victory over Israel, attributing his success to his god, Chimash, or Chimash. And so despite some of their initial success, Israel failed to conquer the nation after the king of Moab sacrificed his own son.

And so as the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah declined, Moab shifted from being a tributary that paid a high tribute to Israel to be an aggressor nation. Moabite raiding parties played the land during the reign of Jehoiakim. And following, but following the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent Babylonian captivity, the Moabites themselves were eventually destroyed and absorbed into the broader country of that region. And this collapse, that collapse, is what Isaiah 15 and 16 are about. Jeremiah 48 is another lengthier, more detailed oracle against Moab.

So God begins this proclamation against Moab and we'll look at this oracle in three parts. Chapter 15 is God's proclamation of judgment against Moab. Chapter 16, verse 1 to 5 is God's announcement of grace to Moab. And chapter 16, verse the remainder, 6 to 13, is Moab's response to God's proclamation. So God's pronouncement of judgment, his pronouncement, his announcement of his grace, and Moab's response to those proclamations.

First, God's proclamation of judgment beginning in verse 1, because in the night, Ar of Moab is laid waste and destroyed, because in the night, Kir of Moab is laid waste and destroyed. These are the two prominent cities. Ar is probably Arora. There is some debate about that, but it's probably Arora. And you can see Arora on your map.

In Deuteronomy 2, the Israelites were to cross over at R, the boundary of Moab. Now remember they had to go around the east of Moab and this is where they come back into that central plain and from there you remember they engaged Sihon, king of the Amorites, at Heshbon. So Ar is the northern border city that marked the northern extent of Moab after Sihon had captured the land above Ar, or Aror. And so Kur is the capital city to the south of Ar. It's also called Kir Haraseth on your map.

And it was destroyed by the Babylonians, whom Jeremiah described as God's instrument of punishment. Kerr is about 50 miles southeast of Jerusalem and about 11 miles east of the Dead Sea, just for reference. And so Moab's response to this destruction of their key cities is to run to their idols and their temples. Verse 2, he's gone up to the temple and Dibon and to the high places to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba.

On all their heads will be baldness and every beard cut off in their streets. They will clothe themselves with sackcloths. On the tops of their houses and in their streets everyone will wail weeping bitterly. This is open public humiliation. Their hair has been cut off, Their beards have been cut off.

That's a sign of humiliation. They're covered in sackcloth. God has their attention at this point. Moab's, But they run to their idols and not to the Lord. They go up to their temples.

Dibban. They're high places. These are their spiritual cities. Their strongest men cry out. Heshbon and Elielah will cry out.

Their voice shall be heard as far as Jehaz. Therefore, the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out and his life will be burdensome to him. They're overwhelmed with this judgment. There's no stiff upper lip here. There's no pretending that they can handle this.

Their soldiers, Their mighty men, their warriors are crying. They're overwhelmed. It's so bad that Isaiah is filled with pity for them. He says in verse 5, My heart will cry out for Moab. Isaiah is the messenger of God's wrath, but he is overcome with pity and sorrow at their plight as is right.

He's not indifferent to the plight of these people that he's speaking to. And just like Jesus was overcome by the hardness of Jerusalem as he entered the city in Luke 19. And you remember he wept for them at the wrath that he knew would fall on them. That's the heart of compassion. It's a heart we ought to have.

It's the heart that moves missionaries to leave their home, their comforts of their home, and go to faraway places, to endure great hardship because of this compassion for those who are facing God's judgment. So Isaiah's heart cries out for Moab. He is a burden for them. Moab's inhabitants now become refugees. His fugitives shall flee to Zohar like a three-year-old heifer for by the ascent of Luhith see Luhith is right there to the east of the Dead Sea and and So the Dead Sea is very low and the land rises steeply to get to that central plateau.

So it's called, For by the ascent of Luhit they will go with weeping, For in the way of Horenam they will raise up a cry of destruction. Moab's inhabitants have become refugees. They're overcome. They're fleeing their home in tears. They're leaving all their possessions behind them.

They're escaping with just the clothes on their back wailing as they go. It's a pitiful, sorrowful sight. Maybe you've seen some of the video footage from World War II of people in a very similar position, fleeing ahead of the advancing armies with everything that they can carry, sometimes just the clothes on their back. Horrific. There's widespread death and destruction throughout the land.

The waters of Nimrim are desolate. The green grass is withered away. The grass fails. There's nothing green. For the cry has gone up all around the borders of Moab.

It's wailing to Eglem, and it's wailing to Birlim, for the waters of Dimun will be full of blood, because I will bring more on Dimun. Lions upon him who escapes, and on the remnant of the land." So many people have been killed that the waters of the rivers are filled with blood. The waters that provided grass for the meadows for the flocks are now blood. There is no grass. The war, the invading armies have destroyed any crops, any land, any meadows for animals to graze.

And those that escape these terrible circumstances, While their troubles aren't over, God sends lions after them. And they're pursued and killed by lions. They're defenseless. The lesson in this, brothers and sisters, is that defying God and ignoring His law inevitably brings overwhelming desolation and crushing sorrow. That's the lesson.

Defying God, ignoring His laws, ignoring Him, going our own way, inevitably brings overwhelming desolation and crushing sorrow. You know, it may not seem like that today. Remember, it's distant. Our mind wants to discount it. Lot's of son-in-laws thought he was crazy, right, when he warned them of God's coming judgment.

They had no concept, no ability to hear what He was saying. Many young people think that they can turn their back on God with no consequence, or they think they can pay lip service, go to church once in a while, and God will be happy. The lesson here is that they are sadly deluding. These were real people who faced real consequences. And the God who brought this judgment to Moab is the same God today, the same laws, the same consequences.

But God announces, right in the middle, He announces grace to Moab. Send the Lamb to the ruler of the land. From Sella to the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion, for it shall be as a wandering bird. Take counsel, execute judgment. Hide the outcasts, do not betray him who escapes.

Let my outcast dwell with you, O Moab. Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler. In mercy the throne will be established and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness there God is giving to them here the way of salvation the way to be delivered send a lamb send a lamb to the ruler of the land. This is not the usual word for lamb, but it is the same word that's used in 2 Kings 3 and 4 where Mesha, the king of Moab, who was a sheep breeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel 100, 000 lambs and the wool of 100, 000 rams. It's the same word there.

They are instructed to send a lamb to the ruler of the land. Pay your tribute as it were. Lend your support to Jehovah's, to his kingdom. And do what you have failed to do before, where you refused to take them in, Where you hired a seer to curse them. Open your borders and take in my people as sojourners among you.

Pity God's people. Feed them. Let them live among you. That's what God is saying. Hide the outcasts.

Don't betray Him who escapes. Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Lord. Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler. In mercy. That's chesed, loving kindness.

In mercy, the throne will be established in truth. Of course, Moab's response to these proclamations is given in the remainder of the chapter. And it won't take time to read it, but The message, the response is that of pride. We have heard the pride of Moab. He is very proud of his haughtiness and his pride in his wrath, but his lies will not be so, therefore Moab will wail for Moab.

Moab was proud, God said. And God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud. He knows those who are lowly, but the proud... He's draw near to those who are lowly, but the proud He knows only from afar.

So this is foxhole Christianity. Verse 12 talks about that He will come to His sanctuary to pray, but He will not prevail. In the midst of this, He will pay lip service. He will pray to God, but because of his pride, God will not hear. Without grace, prayers are not heard.

I remember my pastor growing up, He was an adult in World War II, and he lived in the Bay Area. And he described how as the boats would come back from the Pacific Theater at the end of World War II, when he would have been in his mid-20s to 30. As they came back, as they crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge, he described the scene he saw of Bibles going over the bulwark. Bibles that they had pulled out in their foxholes when the shells were landing around them. When their life was in danger, then they prayed.

But as they came back into safety those Bibles went over the side of the ship into the into San Francisco Bay, that's what That's what Moab's response is Then he will It will come to pass that then he will come to his sanctuary to pray, but he will not prevail. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to those who are humble. And without grace, without God's grace, our prayers are not heard. May God give us His grace to call upon him in sincerity and in truth to remember these warnings for they were written for our instruction so that we might be wise that we may foresee the evil and turn from it God's word is able to make the simple wise. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these warnings.

May they serve to instruct us. May we remember them. May we be those who tremble at your warnings, who take them seriously, who take them to heart, who do not respond as lots of son-in-laws did, thinking that these warnings of incoming judgment are mere crazy talk. The warnings of paranoid conspiracy theorists. Father, may we tremble at the right understanding of them.

And may we be warned by these, for you have given them to us that your servants might be warned. And may we also remember that you are the God who is gracious, abounding in loving kindness and tender mercy, not willing that any should perish. We thank you for your offers of grace, your mercy that always accompanies, these offers of mercy that always accompany your judgment. We ask, Lord, for our nation. We thank you for those who are hearing, those who are awaking.

We pray that more and more would awake from their slumber, would acknowledge the reality of your wrath that we are under and turn to you in faith and repentance and new obedience. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.