False Teaching Destroys Nations - Isaiah 7-11

Isaiah 9:15-17 (ESV Strong's)
the elder and honored man is the head,
and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
for those who guide this people have been leading them astray,
and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,
and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for everyone is godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.

False Teaching Destroys Nations

The above passage is taken from a paragraph and section where Isaiah is explaining the reason for the destruction of Israel.  False teaching had lead the nation astray.  As the above passage states, false teachers were the “head” and the “tail.”   Those who have the charge of “guiding” the people have “led them astray.”   This is the failure of all nations.  Those who teach can make or break a city, a country, a nation.    When those who teach do not honor God then the people they teach will soon live without God.   This was the plight of the nation of Israel. Their teachers did not honor God in their teaching.  We can think that armies are what makes a nation strong.  We can think that the economy of a nation makes it strong.   We can think that the morality and integrity of leadership are what makes the nation strong.   But, the reality is, those who teach the doctrine of the day are what makes a nation stand or fall.   If we think a nation can go forward in strength without hearing the word of God and honoring God as a result, we fool ourselves.  This is why Paul warned Timothy to be a good teacher.  Notice what he warns Timothy about in regard to the last days. Note the end of the section and the emphasis on “learning” and therefore, good/bad teaching:

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (ESV Strong's)
Godlessness in the Last Days
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

When bad teaching enters the ears of the listener they will never honor God.  When we fail to honor God we can only incur His discipline.