In his sermon titled 'Proud of Our Pride,' Peter Allison reflects on Isaiah 16, focusing on the pride of Moab and the broader implications of pride in human nature and culture. Moab, known for its pride and haughtiness, becomes a symbol of how pride can lead to downfall and divine judgment. The sermon explores the insidious nature of pride, using Friedrich Nietzsche as a case study to illustrate extreme arrogance and self-deception. Allison emphasizes that pride is often hidden within acts of kindness and humility, tainting them. He argues that true humility acknowledges Christ as the source of all goodness and warns against the false security pride gives. The sermon discusses God's long-suffering patience with Moab, offering opportunities for repentance over 1100 years, yet Moab's continued rejection of God leads to its destruction. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's patience and mercy, urging the congregation to repent and seek humility before divine judgment is realized.

Let's turn now to Isaiah 16. I'd like to read beginning at verse 6. Hear God's Word. We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath.

But his lies shall not be so. Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab. Everyone shall wail. For the foundations of Kir-Haraseth you shall mourn. Surely they are stricken for the fields of Heshbon, Languish, and the vine of Sibma.

The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants, which have reached to Jazer and wandered through the wilderness. Her branches are stretched out. They are gone over the sea. Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibma. With the weeping of Jazer, I will drench you with my tears.

O Heshban and Eliyelet, For the battle cries have fallen over your summer fruits and your harvest. Gladness is taken away and joy from the plentiful field. In the vineyards there will be no singing, nor will there be shouting, nor treaders shall tread out wine in the presses. I have made their shouting cease. Therefore my heart shall resound like a harp for Moab and my inner being for Kyrhérez.

And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on a high place, then he will come to his sanctuary to pray, but he will not prevail. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now the Lord has spoken, saying, within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble." May Jehovah help us to understand the way of His precepts so that we shall meditate on His wonderful works. Almighty Heavenly Father, Your Word is truth. Sanctify us with it this morning.

Teach us and instruct us that we may walk in your ways, that we may delight in your precepts, that we may take to heart and heed your warnings. Father may we rightly know You and obey You, and I ask also that You would sanctify my sinful lips that through a vessel of clay Your Word might come to us without error in Jesus name. Amen. We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud.

Pride is insidious. That means it's very sneaky and deceptive. It fools people. And Let me give you an example. Frederick Nietzsche, if you're not familiar with him, you don't really need to be, he was a profane and blasphemous man.

He wrote in his autobiography, quote, in my life work, my Zarathustra, That's a reference to an earlier book that he wrote. He said, In my life work, my Zerathustra holds a place apart. With it, I give my fellow man the greatest gift that has ever been bestowed upon them. This book, the voice of which speaks out across the ages, is not only the loftiest book on earth, literally the book of mountain air, Mankind lies an incalculable distance beneath it. But it is also the deepest book born of the inmost abundance of truth and inexhaustible well into which no pitcher can be lowered without coming up laden with gold and with goodness." This book has chapter titles like, Why I Am So Wise.

Why I Write Such Excellent books. In fact, he says a little later in this autobiography, my destiny ordained that I should be the first decent human being, and that I should feel myself opposed to the falsehood of millenniums. I was the first to discover truth. I am the harbinger of joy, the like of which has never existed before. I have discovered tasks of lofty greatness that until my time no one had any idea of such things.

He said, mankind can begin to have fresh hopes only now that I have lived. See why I called him blasphemous? He entitled his autobiography, Ece Homo. And if your Latin's a little rusty, that means, behold the man. It's what Pontius Pilate said when Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe in John 19.

Nietzsche appropriated the term to himself as the pinnacle of human achievement in the Herald of a New Age. Shortly after writing this work, Nietzsche suffered a permanent total mental collapse in January 1889. And he spent the remainder of his life in complete mental darkness, complete dependence, never regaining his reason or ability to write. I think we can safely say that those are the words of pure pride. They're not filtered by any cultural mores.

They're not tempered by any sense of propriety. They're not softened by any trace of humility. They're oblivious to human frailty. They're devoid of any pretense of any moderation. They're hardened against any hint of doubt in his own ability or his fallibility.

Now, if you're thinking, wow, what ignorance, what arrogance, I mean. Or, I can't imagine being that proud, that stupid, or that blasphemous. Or still, if you're thinking, well, I'm thankful, I'm not that proud. See then, you would be illustrating just how insidious pride really is. Because those are the thoughts of someone proud in their humility, proud of their graces, proud they are not as proud as other people, Proud they are not sinners or blasphemers like Nietzsche.

How much pride, you see, is mingled with our graces? How much pride is mingled with our displays of kindness or love. How much pride is mingled in our service? Pride in our usefulness. You see pride to one degree or another, taints and mars everything our sinful nature touches.

And the response of humility is not to preface everything we say with some self-deprecating comment. It's not to engage in verbal self-flagellation or adopt the perpetual downcast spirit of affliction. The response of humility is to acknowledge that Christ is our only hope, that Christ is the author of anything good in us. Moab's pride is noted by the Triune God. We have heard the pride of Moab.

And I believe the we there. Is the triune God. The father, the son and the Holy Spirit are speaking. The triune God has heard their pride. There are other places where there is conversation within the Trinity where God refers to Himself in the first person plural.

Like in Genesis where God said, let us make man in our image. Or in Psalm 110 that we sang, the Lord, that's Jehovah, says to my Lord, referring to the Messiah, sit at my right hand. There's an inter-trinitarian conversation. And the Bible, of course, is the Word of God. He brings that through His servants, the prophets.

And when His prophets come with God's words, it's always with the preface, thus says the Lord. And of course, that doesn't mean that every first person pronoun is referring to God. But I think this we is referring to God for a couple of reasons. First, in verse 13, at the close of this oracle against Moab, God summarizes the oracle that's contained in these chapters 15 and 16 that we've been looking at. He summarizes it with, this is the word which the Lord, which Jehovah there, has spoken against Moab since that time.

Secondly, God is also the obvious referent in several other first-person pronouns in this section, in this oracle. For example, verse 4, let my outcasts dwell with you, O Moab. That's not Isaiah speaking of his outcasts. It's Jehovah saying, let my outcasts dwell with you. It's obviously the Lord speaking.

Or in verse 10, I have made their shouting cease. And it's not Isaiah doing that. It's the Lord. This is a reference to what God will do. God is saying, I will cause their shouting to cease.

And thirdly, there's no other referent in this immediate text to which this pronoun could refer, this we. It might be said to refer to Isaiah, but we've seen that there are other places it obviously isn't and Isaiah is God's mouthpiece, he's God's prophet bringing God's word. And so the Lord, the triune God, the Trinity, is hearing their pride. God does notice. Proverbs 5 says, The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths.

Proverbs 15.3, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch over the evil and the good. And Psalm 33, from the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually. He considers all of their works. David said in Psalm 139, there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Yes, God hears their words, and God knows the pride of Moab Moab was very proud as a culture they were proud they were proud of their success. Your handout has a picture of a seal. That seal is today sitting in the Oriental Institute, but it came from this land. And it illustrates their pride. The text of that seal is written in reverse, so that when you stamp that seal on the soft clay, such as you would use to seal a jar, the words will appear in the proper order, so they're legible.

This seal sought to advertise the quality of the produce from Moab. It advertised Moab as a very desirable place, much like a tourism brochure might advertise some exotic place in the world today that is enticing you to go visit. And so this seal is advertising the glory of Moab and in particular the product or whatever was in that jar. And so as the Oriental Institute translated it, the seal says, Moab has been at ease from his youth, he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity, therefore his taste remained in him and his scent has not changed." Now interestingly the text of the seal is quoted in Jeremiah 48 verse 11. Exactly.

And given that Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Moab was written only a few years before their destruction, it was written about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem or somewhere around 582 BC, Jeremiah is most likely simply quoting what they said about themselves. Because this Jeremiah statement was not a complimentary statement about Moab. The next verse declares, Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I shall send him wine workers who will tip him over and empty his vessels and break the bottles all the things that verse said all the things Moab was boasting were not true God says he's going to undo all that so I don't think that Moab the seal is quoting the verse it's rather God is looking at this culture, he's hearing their pride, and he quotes one of their own words and says, I'm going to I'm going to tip them over, I'm going to empty their vessels and break their bottles. As we go through this chapter with Moab and the remaining chapters, We always do well to ask ourselves, how are these things true of us? How are they true of me?

Because after all, ultimately, we are descended from the same human that they are. We have the same simple nature and the same need of a Savior that they did. And we might think that our pride is well hidden if we refrain from saying the things that Nietzsche says or anything close to it. But as we've seen, pride is insidious. It can affect us in many different ways.

And God hears it and he sees it. We might feel insecure. Often we might feel that other people are a lot better than we are. And that may be a humble humility, but it also may simply be pride that causes us to feel insecure. It causes us to be fearful of the things that we say.

That can be pride. How do I know? Well, I'm a sinful human too. And so we can think our pride is well hidden behind all of the things that we do, but God hears it, He sees it. Moab is...

Moab's pride is the subject of this heavenly conversation. And God says that they are proud of their pride, of their haughtiness and of their wrath. They are proud of their pride. That reminds us of our culture of pride. We celebrate Pride Month as a culture.

We are proud of our rebellion. We are proud of our abominations. We're proud of our pride. We teach our people to esteem themselves, to express themselves, that however they express themselves is fine. We elevate the self-expression as something to be proud of.

Our culture of pride sees self as the measure and the standard of morality. It asks what pleases me, what makes me fulfilled. The Bible tells us that our desires are wicked and that we are self-deceived in our pride. Our culture of pride seeks external validation of others, the celebration of self and the desires of the flesh. The Bible calls us to mortify our flesh, to turn from our ways, to humble ourselves before our Creator.

Our culture of pride parades pride. Parades its pride. It says, blessed are those who assert themselves and display their pride. The Bible says blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit. Psalm 73, six describes these people saying that pride serves as the necklace of the wicked.

They adorn themselves with it. And this is certainly what God is saying of Moab. It is the humble that God beautifies with salvation. It requires humility to acknowledge our sin, to cast ourselves on the mercy of God as those who have no other hope, as those who are under the wrath of a just and holy God from which we can't deliver ourselves. It requires humility to acknowledge that our desires are not right and that we need a Savior.

But because of their pride, Moab has rejected God's offer of salvation that he gave in these first five verses. And so God says that because of their pride, their lies shall not be so." The new King James and the King James say lies, but the sense is that their talk is vain. Their words are empty boasts that will fail. Their words cannot bring to pass that of which they speak as God's Word does. God will have the final word.

Their empty words, their empty talk, their vain talk will fail. God is going to take away their luxury. Because of their pride, God says, therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Moab will weep at the loss of their luxuries and status. They will weep for each other at the loss and the devastation that has come upon them.

And the first example that is given is what the King James calls the foundations of Kirhariseth. And we saw that was the capital city last week. The new King James and King James say foundations, but I don't think that's the meaning here. One dictionary notes that this word for foundations, it says it could be a masculine noun meaning foundation. The more usual word for foundation is a feminine word that's very similar to it.

This dictionary also says it could be a masculine noun meaning raisin cakes. The more usual word for raisin cakes though is a feminine word that's very similar. Or it says it could be a masculine noun meaning men. Most modern translations take it as referring to raisin cakes, as does Jung's literal translation. So I think that's the correct meaning here this morning because that's the context of this whole section.

It's not talking about buildings and foundations of cities. It's talking about luxurious goods. For the fields of Heshbon language in verse 8, the vine of Sibna, the lords of the nations has broken down its choice plants which have reached to Jazur. Her branches are stretched out. Branches there is what it's referring to in verse 9.

Therefore I will be willed the vine of Sibma. Battle cries have fallen over your summer fruits and your harvest or verse 10 gladness it is taken away and joy from the plentiful field in the vineyards there is no singing no shouting no treaders will tread out wine in the wine press. You see this whole section verses eight, nine and ten is all speaking about their luxurious foods, their fields, their vines, their wine. And I think the raisin cakes is the right translation there. The raisin cakes, for the raisin cakes of Kir-Hereshet, you will mourn, because you're not going to have them.

God will take them away. Their vineyards will be destroyed. There won't be any more fine wine for their dining. There won't be any more raisin cakes for their desserts. Their choice plants in which they had prided themselves and to which they poured so much expense and energy, they'll be destroyed.

There are a lot of cities that are named here too. Many of these cities that are named are the cities that were given to Reuben and Gad as a part of their inheritance beyond the Jordan. An inheritance that Moab has taken away from Israel in Israel's later years of decline after the kingdom was divided and the northern kingdom went astray. Heshbon, for example, was assigned to the tribe of Gad, and it was designated as a Levitical city according to Joshua 13 and 21. The tribe of Gad rebuilt and settled Jasur, and Joshua assigned it to the Levites.

Sibma, the tribe of Reuben rebuilt in Numbers 32. It became a part of their tribal inheritance in Joshua 13. So all these cities were one time belonged to the inheritance of Judah that Moab has taken. And all these cities with the great luxuries in which they prided themselves will be destroyed. They'll loose them.

But here's something I think that's amazing. It should cause us to pause. God says, therefore, I will weep. I will bewail the vine of Sibma. Just consider how long God has borne with Moab.

Remember, Moab got its start after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of Lot, as his daughters had children by him. And that was about 1890 BC, 1890 years before Christ. And God sent an angel to deliver Lot and his two daughters. Lot was righteous, the New Testament tells us, but his wife and his daughters were not virtuous women. But God was still gracious to them.

God sent an angel and he delivered them. Then God sent Moses to Moab about 450 years later when they were coming out of the land of Egypt. But they rejected Moses, you remember, and they wouldn't show kindness to Israel. They had an opportunity to join with the people of God. Remember God promised Abraham that He would bless those who blessed Him and curse those who cursed Him.

But God is still merciful to these people who are cousins to Abraham. Then God sent Joshua 40 years later, but they did not receive him. Then God sent David around 1000 BC, but they still did not embrace Zion. God sent Isaiah here around this 700 or just before 720 BC. But they didn't listen to him.

Says they went back to their high places. And then about 100 years later from this chapter, God sent Jeremiah. So God has been speaking to Moab. He's been sending messengers, giving them opportunities for over 1100 years. From the very beginning of this nation.

God has sent prophet after prophet, people after people, who would stand as a witness to the to the grace of God. And so you see here the very great longsuffering of God. God is Now weeping for them, bewailing the vine of Sima with the weeping of Jaser. I will drench you with my tears, O Heshban and Eliela. I will drench you with my tears." You know, this is not, I think, just Isaiah speaking.

Did Isaiah cause the shouting to cease? Was Isaiah the one that destroyed the joy in Moab? No, it's just the living God that did these things. And this is the same God who now says, who said, I will make the shouting to cease, now says, I will drench you with my tears. I will weep bitterly for Jaser.

He's weeping because these battle cries have fallen over their summer fruits in their harvest, and these things are gone. Gladness, in verse 10, is taken away in joy from the plentiful field. That just tells us something about God, something that we need to remember about God, even in his even as his wrath falls upon the wicked, is that he desires our gladness. It's that God has no joy, no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Jesus said that God does love the world.

So he loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. Now he doesn't love the whole world with a saving love, but it is, John says, a love. He is for our gladness. He does bless even, he sends the rain on the just and the unjust. He gives oil to them.

And here Isaiah says that he weeps. God says he weeps for people when their gladness dies. Don't ever, ever say, don't ever, ever think that God is against you or that God does not desire you to know him. He took delight in what they were doing, even in their rebellion. There was a delight in the fact that they were working, they were beautifying the land, They were creating these beautiful vineyards.

The problem isn't in the beauty that they created. The problem is not with their skill, their farming skill, their culinary skill. The problem is in their pride. That tells us something that must be on our hearts as well, as we both joy and sorrow at the destruction of God's enemies. We rejoice, we rightly rejoice when we see God's enemies destroyed.

But we also. When we consider the destruction of beauty, the death of women and children, the pain and the torture of God's judgment, that should bring a weeping. It should bring compassion on us. Jesus had compassion on Jerusalem. On this city that had killed the prophets, as I as Isaiah or as Elijah says, they've they've torn down your idols, they've killed your prophets, and now they want to kill me.

This is the city that God said on them would fall God's wrath for all the blood that had been shed in the city from Abel to the blood of Zechariah. But God also wept for this same city. So there ought to be in us a similar compassion, a burden for the lost, a burden For people, yes, even like Nietzsche. What should be our response to this, to somebody like him or to anyone? Rather to pray for them, to have compassion for their soul that God might be merciful to them.

Moab's response, as we saw last week, is to go to their temples of gods to pray for deliverance, but nothing happens. They went to the church of their choice. They worshipped sincerely. They cried out to all their gods to save them from judgment and nothing happened because they were not crying out to the living true God. They came in their pride.

They prayed in their pride. And they didn't pray to the true God. And so this is the word then in verse 13. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time. It says, within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab would be degraded with all of their great population.

They would have a very small and impotent remnant. Within three years, as the laborer counts them, how does a laborer count time? They count it very precisely, don't they? Very exact. They count the hours.

Exactly, I remember I used to work in a plant that had a lot of hourly workers, right and they counted to the minute it was You know five or ten minutes before the end of their shift. They are lining up. They're cleaning everything up They're lining up in the minute that that clock struck the hour they could depart then then they're out the door they counted that time very exactly Within three years as the out years of a hired man The glory of Moab be despised with all of their great multitude So Isaiah is not saying in roughly give or take, but in exactly three years Moab will be destroyed. And she was. What we sow to the flesh will be destroyed.

What we love That is not of the Lord will be destroyed. Galatians Paul reminds us in Galatians, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.

But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life and let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. We also see here an example of people who despised the people of God. Over 1100 years, they continually despised the people of God. They lived right next to the land where God dwelt, where His glory dwelt, the land of the temple. And there were many people who came into Israel and did not despise God's people.

Ruth is an example. Uriah the Hittite is another example, and there were many, many, many people. But Moab despised the people of God. Don't despise the people of God today brothers and sisters the well with God's people Gather with them when they worship But also recognize that God is patient. God is slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness.

He delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. He calls us to, as he called Moab, send the land. He calls us who are dead in our sins to call upon the Lord. God's patience is meant to bring us to repentance.

Do not let God's patience expire without calling upon Him. Heavenly Father, thank you for your words, your warnings to us who are also so prone to pride, prone to delay calling upon you, prone to delay in putting away our sins, prone to ignoring your warnings and your word, to thinking that it may not apply to us or that we have time to go our own way and do our own pleasure. But the testimony of Your Word is that judgment comes suddenly when we are not prepared for it or expecting it. And so we ask, Lord, that You would give us wisdom this morning to apply our hearts to wisdom, to call upon you, the Lamb of God who does take away the sins of the world, the only sacrifice. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.