I’m Awl Ears (Isaiah 50:1-11)

“We stood and watched while God abandoned us, and then we did the best we could.”

That’s author Alice Hoffman’s conclusion as to why there is so much evil. God must have abandoned us. She’s not alone in her assessment. In the movie Venom Carlton Drake says, “God has abandoned us. He didn’t keep His part of the bargain.”

It’s one thing for an author who writes about magic, or a comic book villain, to paint God that way. We can dismiss it as ignorance.  

Isaiah’s Jewish listeners accused the LORD of abandoning them.

They forgot one not insignificant detail: They had brought their troubles upon themselves. It wasn’t God who had abandoned them. No, it was the opposite. It was for their “iniquities” and their “transgressions” that they were being punished.

You and I have not abandoned God. What might you be blaming God for? Accusing Him of not loving you for? Of delaying until it was too late? Maybe nothing… Maybe something… Maybe everything?

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jesus Never Abandons You, and #2 Jesus Always Advocates For You. 

#1 – Jesus Will Never Abandon You (v1-7)

Mega-Church pastor Joshua Harris authored the wildly popular book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Not too long ago he kissed Jesus goodbye. After announcing his divorce he renounced his faith: “I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”

I looked-up ‘deconstruction’ for you:

Faith deconstruction, also known as deconstructing faith, evangelical deconstruction, the deconstruction movement, or simply deconstruction, is a phenomenon within American evangelicalism in which Christians rethink their faith and jettison previously held beliefs, sometimes to the point of no longer identifying as Christians. It is closely related to the exvangelical movement.

I looked-up ‘ex-vangelical’ for you:

Ex-vangelical is a social movement of people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief, or lack thereof. People in the movement are called ‘ex-vangelicals’ or ‘exvies.’

Abandon Jesus and you are not an apostate who denies the Lord who bought you. You’re a hip deconstructionist or a trendy ex-vangelical.

Currently, about three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. The % grows with each new poll.

The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said He’d never leave you, never forsake you. He keeps “His end of the bargain.”

We are in the section of Isaiah in which he is introducing the Jewish Messiah. He calls Him the Servant. We know it is Jesus. For one, several verses from Isaiah are applied to Jesus in the NT.

Isa 50:1  Thus says the LORD: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

We jump right into an illustration in verse one. The LORD compares He and them (they?) to a family – husband, wife, kids. It is OK to call them dysfunctional as long as we understand it applies only to the wife and kids – not the LORD.

It is so Garden of Eden to blame others, or God, is it not? Their situation was of their own doing.

Translators have a tough time with this verse:

• A lot of Bible versions make it sound like the husband did give his wife a certificate of divorce, as required by Jewish law, and a receipt for selling the kids.
• In other versions, the LORD insists He has done no such thing.

The “I’ve done no such thing” fits best with the context. The LORD challenged them to prove His unfaithfulness. He had not divorced them or else He would have provided a certificate of divorce as required. He had no debts to repay, therefore He had not sold them.

I could be missing something, but this is an illustration – not a teaching on marriage & divorce. You shouldn’t read anything into it about who is the wife of YHWH and who is the bride of Jesus.

Isa 50:2  Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer?…

Remember I Love Lucy? What did Ricky say when he came home from work? That’s right – “Lucy, I’m home!”

The faithful husband & father comes home after a hard day’s work. His wife is gone, having abandoned him and the children. Nevertheless the kids hold dad responsible for all their distresses.

Isa 50:2  … Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst.

The LORD had power to both “redeem” and “deliver” them. He didn’t because they wouldn’t stop sinning.

There are14 questions asked in these verses. Asking question after question is something God employs to reset our worldview. In Job 38&39 the LORD asks 77 questions. Job is overwhelmed by the LORD’s power tempered by grace. It is a profound reset for him.

God never fatigues, never tires. He doesn’t need retraining for perishable skills. Why doesn’t He flex His spiritual muscles more often? He’s not a poser! Real strength in the Church Age is revealed in our weakness. When we are weak, then are we strong.

The image of dead, stinking fish dying of thirst is a throwback to the days just prior to the Exodus from Egypt. He had ten plagues to choose from, plus hundreds of other miracles, signs, and wonders in their history. Why this one?

I don’t know. It does teach us something. Jesus knows what He would say to a person if He were on Earth. Since He is not on Earth He employs us to speak to people for Him. We ought, therefore, to attempt discovering what it is He wants said.

Isa 50:3  I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering.”

Charles Spurgeon applied this to the 3hrs of darkness when Jesus was on the Cross:

We read that, at high noon, the sun was veiled, and there was darkness over all the land for three black hours. Wonder of wonders, He who hung bleeding there had wrought that mighty marvel! The sun had looked upon Him hanging on the Cross, and, as if in horror, had covered its face, and traveled on in tenfold night. The tears of Jesus quenched the light of the sun. Had He been wrathful, He might have put out its light for ever; but His love not only restored that light, but it has given to us a light a thousand times more precious, even the light of everlasting life and joy.

As the darkness of that day diminished Jesus announced with a commanding voice, “It is finished!”The time to conquer death by dying had come.

Let’s skip verse four. Don’t worry. We will ‘circle back’ to ‘unpack’ it.

Isa 50:5  The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.

In the OT Book of Deuteronomy we learn that indentured servants who desired to remain in the household permanently had their ears pierced. “You shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever” (15:17). That is what is meant by “opening the ear.”

Adding humanity to His deity through the virgin birth was the penultimate ‘opening of the ear.’

Isa 50:6  I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

Our context is the accusation that God has abandoned us, leaving us to fend for ourselves. If ever there was a time to call it quits, to abandon the human race, it would have been that long night and day. Jesus didn’t quit. He dug in, flint-faced.

Isa 50:7  “For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

• How can a man be beaten so thoroughly that He barely looked human and yet say it was not a disgrace?
• How can He, the most innocent man ever, die the death of a common criminal nailed naked on the main road into Jerusalem and not be ashamed?

Jesus revealed His ‘secret.’ “For the Lord GOD will help Me.” He so trusted in the Father’s help that, for His entire life, He “set [His] face like a flint.” It’s a way of saying that nothing would deter Him from His mission.

The Father did not help Him in ways we would like for Him to help us. He didn’t stop the crucifixion. He didn’t immediately come and smite the enemies of Christ. In fact, the entire episode came across as the greatest religious failure in the history of the world.

How did God the Father help Jesus? In many ways, but I would put near or on top of the list that they shared fellowship with each other as the Lord was on the Cross.

The one place in the Bible that seems contrary to this is Psalm 22, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” People say, “See that? The Father turned anthropomorphic His back on the Son.”

He didn’t; He couldn’t. Read on in Psalm 22, to verse 24 – “For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard, when He cried to him.”

Can you envision Jesus looking into the Father’s face, knowing He had perfectly obeyed Him and was about to finish their work? The Father’s face would be beaming with light and love.

#2 – Jesus Always Advocates For You (v8-11)

The scene in Isaiah shifts to Heaven, post-resurrection.

Isa 50:8  He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.

“Justified” is referring to a Judge. It has a courtroom vibe. Having endured the Cross, Jesus can stand in a heavenly tribunal and declare His total and convincing victory. If any “adversary” wishes to “contend” with Him, as King Theoden said, “Let them come!”

Jesus did not die for Himself. He had no sin. He died for the human race. When you believe Him, God withdraws your sin and puts Jesus’ righteousness into your heavenly account. What is true of Him becomes true of you. You will be accused and have to contend with enemies. It is always in the context that Jesus advocates for you.

Isa 50:9  Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up.

This is the OT counterpart to, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). The moth is reminiscent of Jesus encouraging us to think always about Heaven and our future rewards. Moths are not allowed. Neither are thieves or rust.

How will He help? “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us (Romans 8:31-34).

Isa 50:10  “Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD And rely upon his God.

“Fear the Lord” in this context was a description of those who had been declared righteous by God. My dad used to call Christians, “Born-agains.” Maybe apostate Jews called righteous Jews, “Fearers,” or something like that.

Obedience is beyond us without help (read Romans 7). Praise the Lord we not only have “help,” He has given us the Helper Himself, God the Holy Spirit, to permanently indwell us individually & corporately.   

When we get saved, aren’t we removed from the domain of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light? Yes, but you remain on Earth, “among the English” as the Amish put it. The word for “darkness” is a plural; it is “darknesses.” The believer is God’s light in the peculiar “darknesses” in which you find yourself throughout your lifetime.

The apostle Paul said, “But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (Second Corinthians 4:3-4).

A thick “veil” prevents unbelievers from ‘seeing’ the Lord. One commentator likened Satan’s veil to virtual reality goggles. You “see,” but it is a fantasy, a game, with deadly stakes.

We have had our virtual reality goggles removed by the power of the Gospel & we see reality.

Isa 50:11  Look, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled – This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment.

The unbelievers in verse eleven kindle their own fire. Religion, science, psychology, philosophy; they send out sparks but not sufficient to kindle a fire.

You can sing Amazing Grace or I Did it My Way. The account Jesus gave of the rich man and Lazarus perfectly illustrates what we mean.

You arrive on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening and the special guest is Jesus. After He addresses us -hopefully in a Church of Philadelphia way – He opens it up for Q&A.

“Jesus, in the Gospels we see you spending a lot of time alone with our Father. Can you describe a little about that?”

Quoting verse four, “The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.”

When Jesus was on the Earth, “morning by morning” He had devotions! More likely, “morning by morning” means “day after day.”

It is incredible to think of the Second Person of the Trinity being instructed “how to speak” just the right “word” to people, all of whom are weary from life on a fallen Earth in a corrupting body and eternity in their hearts.

Who are the “learned?” You are!

“Learned” means those who are instructed. Having set aside His deity to live an entirely human life, the Lord was instructed by the Father via God the Holy Spirit. The Helper, God the Holy Spirit, is also our resident scholar (John 14:26).

It is arrogant to think God has abandoned us. The fault with the world is not His. It is ours for choosing the wages of sin.

It seems to me that God had two choices:

1. Create the universe exactly as described, knowing what our parents would do and what He would do about it.
2. Or, not create the universe at all.

Behind Door #1 is the incredible sufferings of the human race. But there is also the incredible grace of God.

Job put a foot inside Door #2. “May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived’ ” (3:3). But when his suffering was ended he said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You” (42:5).   

In the end, everything is going to be awl-right

Who Is That Marked Man? It’s The Lone Savior. (Isaiah 49:1-26)

Don’t… Don’t Dare… Don’t Dare Stare…Don’t Dare Stare at the Illustrated Man.

That’s the tagline to the awful 1969 movie based on Ray Bradbury’s awesome anthology of short stories. A former carnival freak is completely tattooed. If you stare at a tattoo it becomes animated.

Isaiah introduces us to a Servant. In verse sixteen the Servant says, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…” Different versions of the Bible translate “inscribed” as graven, marked, drawn, engraved, and written.

Do Dare Stare at the tattooed man in our verses.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The Lord’s Inscribed Hands Battle For You, and #2 The Lord’s Inscribed Hands Buttle For You.

#1 – The Lord’s Inscribed Hands Battle For You (v1-7)

“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.” The “walls” have to be the walls of the beloved city, Jerusalem. The CEV translates this, “A picture of your city is drawn on my hand.”

The servant talks about Jerusalem and the Israelites as if they were one and the same.

In the Star Trek original series episode, Amok Time, Kirk and Spock must fight to the death. Dr. McCoy tries to talk him out of it, but Kirk says, “Bones, He’s my first officer and my friend. I disregarded StarFleet orders to bring him here. Another thing, that’s T’Pau of Vulcan. All of Vulcan in one package. How can I back out in front of her?”

“All of Vulcan in one” person. That’s the idea here. All of Israel in one city, Jerusalem. Stare at the inscription of the city and you ‘see’ every saved Israelite.

Isa 49:1  “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

Isaiah doesn’t say this person is Jesus. There are Christian commentators who suggest other possibilities. Note the descriptions of the Servant as we read and you will conclude He can only be Jesus.

The “coastlands” was an idiom to describe the limits of the known world. Salvation would be offered to Gentiles, to the whole world.

Translators didn’t know the word “matrix” would make us think SyFy. It’s a synonym for an atmosphere or a surrounding in which something develops. In this case it is someone, developing in the “matrix” that was His mother’s “womb.”

God the Father “called” the Servant before He was born to be the redeemer of the sin-enslaved, headed-for-second-death, perishing human race.

Isa 49:2  And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

He battled for us. Every moment Jesus was on earth for us He was battling. Whether it was his obscurity, for the better part of his life, or the opposition of the devil, Jesus was grappling.

The “mouth” of the Servant, His words, are like a honed “sword” and a sharpened “arrow.”

These were spiritual weapons, not used to slaughter His enemies in Jesus’ first coming, but to pierce hardened hearts with the Gospel.

Jesus grew up before His Heavenly Father concealed from the eyes of the world, protected in the “shadow” of God’s hand. God “hid” Jesus until it was time. The majority of His life on earth was spent in a very ordinary way.

God’s time and timing trouble us. In our more spiritual moments we acknowledge that God is always right on time. But when you’re in the thick of it, it can seem as though He is late. Even too late!

Isa 49:3  “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.’

Isa 49:4  Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God.’ ”

The words “You are My servant, O Israel” are why some suggest that this cannot be Jesus. Other candidates are Isaiah, the nation of Israel, the believing remnant within Israel, King Cyrus, or his successor, King Darius.

In verse six the Servant is called “a light to the Gentiles.” That is quoted and applied to Jesus by Simeon in Luke 2:32. Duh.

It is hard not to read this as discouragement on the Lord’s part. I certainly don’t want to go too far trying to describe the Lord’s pure, never sinful, emotions.  Nevertheless it is wrong to try to explain this away, or suggest simple solutions.   

One Sunday morning in 1866, from the pulpit of his London Metropolitan Tabernacle, Charles Spurgeon shocked his congregation of 5000 by admitting, “I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever gets to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.” He later described his depression as a “seething caldron of despair.”

On another occasion he said, “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.” Spurgeon never did conquer his depression.

In His coming Jesus added humanity to His deity. He set His deity aside and lived as a man. Being 100% human means He experienced the emotions we do, only never sinning. Yes, He expressed discouragement. From a strictly earthbound perspective His ministry measured a dismal failure. So will yours, either from time to time or all the time.

I’m not talking about pastors and missionaries and our supposedly stress-filled, sabbatical-seeking lives. Every believer is a minister of the Gospel, a missionary where they live & work.

There are all manner of things that will discourage you. Illness, of course, is high on the list, especially chronic. The deteriorating state of the world weighs heavy on us. Most of us at least some of the time think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. It leaves us open to discouragement. Some of you are prone to what used to be called melancholy. Sin, of course, is like a weight, crushing us.

Perspective and worldview are what is prescribed when it says, “Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God.”

• Your “reward” is in the “work” itself, if it is for God.
• It is “work with my God” to the extent you allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead you.

The foil for discouragement (or depression or whatever we are calling it) is to deeply believe the apostle Paul’s analysis that “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:21&23).

Isa 49:5  “And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength),

The mission of redeeming & restoring Israel to God will succeed. It is still in the future, coming during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble when “all Israel” will be saved before the return of Jesus.

Isa 49:6  Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

Isa 49:7  Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You.”

Jesus came to His own, the Jews, and they rejected Him. He turned His followers loose upon the Gentile world offering salvation to them. It is articulated for us by the apostle Paul right at the end of the Book of Acts. “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:28).

Have you heard it? Are you hearing it now? Respond to the Lord.

#2 – The Lord’s Inscribed Hands Buttle For You (v8-26)

It’s a word; it’s what butlers do.

All of this section is about what the servant is going to do for His chosen nation. We are told what He will do, not what we must do.

Isa 49:8  Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;

We would put this at the end of the Time of Jacob’s trouble. It is the “acceptable time” for the Lord to hear them cry out to Him. It is, for the Jews on earth during that time, “salvation” and miraculous “preservation.”

After the Lord returns, Israel will be a “covenant.” This may be the New Covenant promised Israel involving giving them a heart of flesh to replace their hard hearts of stone. The Church is experiencing blessings of the New Covenant, e.g., the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

Isa 49:9  That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.

Isa 49:10  They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them.

The return of Jews to Jerusalem after the Time of Jacob’ Trouble will be with great joy. The returnees will be provided with shade and supplies along the way.

Isa 49:11  I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated.

Is this a future flat-earth prooftext? No. But there will be changes in the geography of earth. It will be easy to journey to Jerusalem.

Isa 49:12  Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.”

You’ll be able to look far and see Jews from “Sinim” on their way. There is absolutely zero agreement on Sinim. Whether it was Phoenicia or farther, perhaps China, we don’t know.

Isa 49:13  Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.

I’m taking this literally:

• Geologists have proven that the earth hums due to a phenomenon known as “microseisms,” which are low-frequency, long-period seismic waves that constantly reverberate through the planet’s crust.
• In May of last year a solar-powered balloon mission detected a repeating infrasound noise in the stratosphere. Scientists don’t know what is making it.

Isa 49:14  But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.”

Isa 49:15  “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.

The Lord’s supernatural love for Israel is stronger and more faithful then the greatest natural love.

Isa 49:16  See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

I don’t see how this isn’t literal. In ancient times servants and slaves were tattooed or branded or pierced. It makes sense that THE Servant of all would be likewise.

Maybe it’s a reference to the Lord’s scars from the Crucifixion? He will bear them for eternity. That’s not at all what it says here. The nails were not an inscription.

The inscription is the earthly Jerusalem, the capital of the earth in the Millennium. There is one on each palm. Are they two identical tattoos? Or is one the New Jerusalem that comes from Heaven to satellite the earth? Because it seems like in the Millennium both Jerusalem’s will be active. The New Jerusalem cannot be on earth replacing Jerusalem; it’s too big!

Isa 49:17  Your sons shall make haste; Your destroyers and those who laid you waste Shall go away from you.

• Jews who had been dispersed by the antichrist’s all-out assault will “make haste” to return to Jerusalem.
• Persecutors who took the Mark of the Beast will flee.

You might run across the suggestion that Isaiah was writing about the Jews returning to Jerusalem when released from Babylon. Only a relatively few Israelites responded to Cyrus’ edict and returned to rebuild Jerusalem. The majority decided to stay in Babylon. This prediction is for the far future.

Isa 49:18  Lift up your eyes, look around and see; All these gather together and come to you. As I live,” says the LORD, “You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, And bind them on you as a bride does.

The CEV translates this, “I, the LORD, promise that your city with its people will be as lovely as a bride wearing her jewelry.”

Isa 49:19  “For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away.

The Millennial Kingdom on Earth will have a good problem to resolve. There will be an abundance of believing Jews.

Isa 49:20  The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, ‘The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.’

Isa 49:21  Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me, Since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these, where were they?’ ”

Modern Israel is a miracle. How did the Jews survive as a people? The history of antisemitism is mind-boggling. Speaking of Ukraine, have you heard of Bogdan Chmielnicki? In the 1700s he and his Ukrainian Cossacks murdered Jews and burned Jewish communities. Until Hitler, Chmielnicki was the greatest murderer of Jews in all of Jewish history.

Isa 49:22  Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;

Isa 49:23  Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

These predictions sound too good to be true. The LORD said, “Just wait; you’ll see.”

Let’s talk eschatology for a moment. We’ve talked about replacement theology. It is the teaching that physical Israel has been replaced in God’s plan by spiritual Israel, which includes the Gentiles. Nothing Isaiah wrote would make any sense if that were true. The plain sense of his prophecies is that the physical descendants of Abraham will endure to the end and receive all the promises made by God.

Isa 49:24  Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered?

Isa 49:25  But thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children.

We’d have to say the Lord is a battling buttler.

Isa 49:26  I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know That I, the LORD, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

This describes the warning the Lord gives people who resist His rule. Too bad we don’t have time to explain “I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh.”

Siege warfare often resulted in cannibalism. In Second Kings, during a siege of Samaria, two Jewish mothers discuss eating one another’s baby (6:24-30).

When unbelievers refuse the grace of God they bring catastrophe upon themselves.

You’ve probably made a connection that I have yet to mention. Are we, the Church, ever closely identified with a city?

Sure are. Revelation 21:9-10, “Then one of the seven angels… came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”

Almost everyone gets confused by the angel saying he was going to show “the bride,” then showing John the heavenly city. We should have a handle on it now, thanks to Isaiah. You see the city, you see the saints.

Jerusalem engraved on one hand… New Jerusalem on the other. That marked man is fully God, Jesus Christ, your Savior.

Rebel, Rebel, How Could You Know? Cyrus, I Love Him So. (Isaiah 48:1-22)

“What if…?”

It’s a question film makers like to explore. It is fiction based on alternative history exploring what might have happened if certain historical events or figures had been different. President John F. Kennedy surviving assassination is a popular topic in alternative history. Ditto the Nazis winning WW2.

I asked bing for a list of live action shows that are based on an alternative history. The list was at 65 and still growing.

By far the most spectacular “What if…?” in human history was what Jesus proposed.

Called The Lament of Jesus, the Lord looked out over Jerusalem and is quoted by Matthew saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (23:37).

There is a lament of that very sort in our text: “Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (v18).

The LORD’s intentions to bless them were undermined by their willful disobedience. They were  rebels who would endure the ‘alternative’ history of captivity in Babylon. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jesus Is Merciful To Anticipate Your Disobedience, and #2 Jesus Is Gracious To Accelerate Your Obedience.

#1 – Jesus Is Merciful To Anticipate Your Disobedience (v1-11)

The Book of Isaiah, and the entire Bible, places the ethnic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob center stage. The apostle Paul told us why when he wrote the letter to the Romans. “They are… God’s chosen people. God showed them His glory. He made agreements with them and gave them His Law. The Temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of Jesus Christ” (9:4-5 CEV).

God calls Israel “the apple of His eye” (Zephaniah 2:8). Like it or not, Israel has been, is today, and always will be, the most significant nation on earth.

Despite her constant failures, God would not ever “cut [Israel] off.” When necessary He would “test” them – discipline them – “in the furnace of affliction.”

If you have the KJV, it says, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” History certainly reveals that they are God’s “chosen,” but afflicted, nation.

The modern nation of Israel is the fulfillment of many prophecies. From 1948 forward they have been “tested.” They are currently being tested. Not just by the war against Hamas, but by the majority of nations and their open antisemitism.

Israel will face its greatest testing when they are the main actor in the future 7yr ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble.’

Isa 48:1  “Hear this, O house of Jacob, Who are called by the name of Israel, And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; Who swear by the name of the LORD, And make mention of the God of Israel, But not in truth or in righteousness;

Isa 48:2  For they call themselves after the holy city, And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name:

As always the LORD looks within, to the heart:

• “Not in truth” means deceived. They were self-deceived into thinking that God would never allow His city and His Temple to fall. It had been standing almost 500 years. They would shortly discover that the Temple and the city were secondary to repairing His relationship with them.
• “Not in… righteousness” means they were trusting in their outward show of religious practices, in self-righteousness based on works.

Self-deceived & self-righteous are the characteristics of every person who has not believed God.

Isa 48:3  “I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

Isa 48:4  Because I knew that you were obstinate, And your neck was an iron sinew, And your brow bronze,

Isa 48:5  Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’

It would be about a century before the rise of Babylon to the status of a world power. The LORD predicted it. We saw previously that He also predicted the fall of Babylon, mentioning by name a yet unborn king, Cyrus of Persia, as its conqueror.

Believers & unbelievers ought to look around and be stunned by the current  trends that God predicted in the first century.

Isa 48:6  “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them.

Isa 48:7  They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’

“Created now” means done now. The LORD was revealing something to them that was new and could not be found in any previous revelations.

Isa 48:8  Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.

The LORD was talking directly to the future Jews. His predictive prophecies about Babylon & Cyrus could only be explained by the fact that He is the one, true God Who knows and controls the future.

The second sentence in verse eight can read:

• “From before birth you were called a rebel” (ESV).
• “From the moment of your birth, I knew you would rebel” (CEV).
• “Your heart was turned against me from your earliest days” (BBE).

Which was it – before birth, at the moment of birth, or from earliest days? We are sinners from womb to tomb. We call this The Doctrine of Original Sin. The good folks at gotquestions.org write,

The term original sin refers to Adam’s sin of disobedience in eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and its effects upon the rest of the human race. Original sin can be defined as “the moral corruption we possess as a consequence of Adam’s sin, resulting in a sinful disposition manifesting itself in habitually sinful behavior.” [We have] no ability to overcome sin apart from the [grace] of the Holy Spirit.  

How does God the Holy Spirit apply grace to save us? He must either force you to believe, or free you to believe:

• In the forced case, God’s grace is irresistible – meaning God causes you to have faith and be born again before you believe. Regeneration, they say, comes before you can exercise faith.
• In the freed-will case, God’s grace is resistible – meaning you receive Jesus by faith and are then born-again.

There are two things that seem irrefutable to us:

1. For one, there are passages that bluntly say God’s grace is resistible (e.g., Acts 7:51).
2. For two, the Bible always puts faith (believing) before regeneration (e.g., Acts 16:31).

Isa 48:9  “For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off.

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Isa 48:11  For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.

“For My name’s sake,” “For My own sake, For My own sake,” for “My glory.” He’s not a glory-hound. His glory revealed is evangelical. He wishes to save the lost and perishing.

The LORD “restrained” Himself in the sense of not giving them what they deserved, which was to be permanently “cut off.” That is mercy. Instead He “refined” them in “affliction.”

This isn’t the kind of refining God allows in order to purify. This is direct discipline for disobedience.

“For I knew that you would deal very treacherously.” How did God know? That may seem obvious. After all, He is God. He must therefore have a perfect foreknowledge of the future. But does His foreknowledge of events foreordain that they must occur? Or is there room for us to act freely? These questions are usually worded, “Is God Sovereign, and/or Do we have free will?” Let’s go to the extremes:

1. On the extreme sovereignty bandwagon are those who say, “If there is one single maverick molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.” Before you embrace this, understand that you will be adopting a meticulous determinism by which God becomes the author of sin, responsible for every evil that happens, and that somehow it glorifies Him.
2. Beating the extreme drum for free-will are Open Theists. Because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions. Though omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future.

We are not ‘extremists.’ Of course God is sovereign! His sovereignty is so great that He can allow mankind to exercise genuine free will, compensating for it when necessary through His providence.

Isn’t it obvious that Israel could have chosen otherwise? Of course it is! In fact, it says as much in v17-19. It is simultaneously true that the LORD always acts to keep the plan of redemption on track.

If you find you are changing the plain sense of the Bible so that it ‘fits’ into your system, you are subordinating Scripture to your own wisdom.

Jesus is merciful to anticipate your disobedience.

Jesus anticipated the apostle Peter’s disobedience.  He warned Peter that he was being targeted by Satan. The devil wanted permission to sift him as wheat. Peter would, in fact, deny the Lord. But Jesus had prayed for Peter and would restore him.

This is mercy. God tells us that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3). Why the morning? Because God anticipates our daily disobedience. He greets us with His mercies so we can get out of bed and walk with Him.

#2 – Jesus Is Gracious To Accelerate Your Obedience (v12-22)

John Newton was no one-hit wonder. The slave-trader turned clergyman said, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.” Mercy clears the deck for Jesus to engulf you in His grace.

Isa 48:12  “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.

Isa 48:13  Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together.

The Person in these two verses is the Creator of heaven and earth. “First” and “last” mean He was not part of creation. He was not Himself a created being. He was “first” and “last,” alpha and omega, beginning and end. His name is Jesus!

Isa 48:14  “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

Isa 48:15  I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

This is another person. The LORD “called him… brought him…[and] will prosper [him.]” He will strong arm the “Chaldeans” and conquer “Babylon.” We know him from earlier in Isaiah, and from history. It’s Cyrus the Great, who was not yet born.

Notice the phrase, “the LORD loves him.” He was a loved unbeliever. God really isn’t willing that any should perish. He really does “so love the world.”

The LORD announces this to an assembly of His chosen. Undoubtedly you opened a gift that had some assembly required. The manufacturers definition of “some” is what frustrates me. Just put on the box, “Major assembly required by sophisticated single-purpose tools you wish you had in your man-cave.”

Our God is great at assembling. I’ve been fascinated by the insight that any time we get together we are a unique ‘assembling’ of God’s. When we arrive, who we see and greet, where we sit, what we hear and say… It will never be the same.

We come as living stones to be built as the Lord’s Temple. Think legos. You can build a variety of things depending on the blocks you’re given. Same with us. What does the Holy Spirit want to build? Depends on who assembles. Overcomers, Assemble!

Isa 48:16  “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me.”

Wait; is this a clear, undeniable reference to God as Trinity?? Jesus “was [always] there,” meaning for eternity. He was there with “the Lord GOD and His Spirit.” Father… Son… Spirit.

The Father & the Spirit “sent” Jesus to earth in the incarnation. It’s Christmas in Isaiah 48!

Isa 48:17  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.

God’s direction in your life is custom designed with the intent that you will “profit” if you follow His lead.

Isa 48:18  Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Isa 48:19  Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off Nor destroyed from before Me.”

God’s original plan for Israel after they exodused from Egypt was for them to conquer the Promised Land in a matter of days, not decades.

Had they “heeded [His] commandments” the promises of verse 18 & 19 would have been immediate. Instead the nations of the world are still waiting for the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of the Lord, and for Israel to take her proper place.

Wait a minute. How would that have worked out? Don’t know. But God said it would have.

God’s wisdom is greater, higher than ours let’s not bring Him down to our level for the sake of thinking we’ve figured out everything.

Isa 48:20  Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, Declare, proclaim this, Utter it to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”

The remnant ought to think of it as a new Exodus. It was occasion for singing and shouting praises.

Sadly, many had grown comfy in Babylon and stayed put. Fear had kept them from the Promised Land after Egypt. Prosperity did after Babylon.

Isa 48:21  And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

If you were the richest man in the world, it would be like having a counterfeit penney compared to the torrent of God the Holy Spirit living within you.

It’s good to recall God’s previous spiritual blessings. Can’t think of any because you’re suffering too much? Too many tears? Post a Job meme up with the caption, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him… He also shall be my salvation” (13:15-16).

Isa 48:22  “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

Albert Barnes wrote, “Many of their countrymen [would choose] to remain in Babylon. They had formed connections there, amassed wealth, and refused to attend those who returned to Judea to rebuild the Temple.”

Staying in Babylon would be comfy, but they would not experience God’s peace.

We are born knowing that rock blunts scissors, scissors cuts paper, and paper covers rock.

Peace blunts, cuts, and covers comfort. Peace comes from God; comfort is worldly. Alexander Whyte said, “You do not really care for God’s mercy or His [peace] either, so long as you live in any sin. And it is well that you do not; for you can have neither. Your peace will be like a river, when you put away your sin; but not one word of true peace… can you have till then.”

Ever drive a Tesla? Then you know what acceleration is. (You might find out what a lithium fire is, too). But man, it is 0-60 in lickety-split.

Walk with the Lord and His living water will become a torrent accelerating your growth.

My Bare Lady (Isaiah 47:1-15)

“Is there hope for America?”

Here are three responses from experts:

#1 “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors.”

#2 “The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

#3 “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

The experts, in order, were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.

So… How are we doing as a nation?

It’s like the Days of Noah out there! Weird marriages… a near total disrespect for biblical morality… seemingly unrestrained violence everywhere.

One thing that we have discovered as we’ve studied Isaiah is that God deals with nations, not just individuals. It has given us opportunity to talk about our own nation in the plans and purposes of God. And yes, we are in trouble.

Isaiah predicts the demise of the Kingdom of Babylon. He does so with a poignant illustration. He starts off calling her “O virgin daughter of Babylon.” But He quickly adds, “Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen.”

Human history is littered with conquered empires. In every case, though we may not know the details, it is in accordance with God’s plan that redemption for everyone would come through the nation of Israel.

Before we ever answer the question, “Is there hope for America?” there are two preliminary questions.  I’ll organize my comments around them. #1 Are We A Daughter That Comes To Dust? and #2 Are We Daughters Who Consort With Devils?

#1 – Are We A Daughter That Comes To Dust? (v1-8)

“Don’t think of it as dust. Think of it as the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination.” Pigpen says that in the timeless classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Our text explains the “dust” of Babylon.

Isa 47:1  “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.

The “Chaldeans” were an aggressive people-group in Babylon. Over time their name came to be synonymous with Babylon.

When the Bible refers to a “daughter,” singular, she represents the entire nation. “Daughters,” plural, refers to individual citizens (both male & female).

God was about to bring them to dust; from virginal to violated.

Isa 47:2  Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers.

Isa 47:3  Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man.”

Babylon would be conquered and instead of the tender virgin they would become common slaves.

God “will not arbitrate” means that this judgment was final. Once it began, He wouldn’t relent.

Yes, God is the God of second chances. We sometimes say, “It is never too late to come to Jesus and be saved.” We see this in God’s dealings with the Assyrian Empire. God relented when Nineveh repented!

At times it becomes too late. You cannot be saved after you die, for example.

One commentator writes, “Our Creator blesses each nation with a span of time so it might prosper and do well, but this blessing ends when a nation becomes degenerate, rebellious, and unfit for self-rule. When God determines that extended mercy for a nation has no redeeming effect, He marginalizes or destroys that nation.”

Isa 47:4  As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.

The Jews would be taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. They would be slaves in his realm. Slaves need to be redeemed. They need someone to purchase them and set them free.

Their slave-status in Babylon lasted 70 years. With help from the new reigning world empire, Medo-Persia, the Jews would return to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls and its Temple.

Isa 47:5  “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms.

Albert Barnes commented, “The appellation, ‘Lady of kingdoms’ is equivalent to… ‘the mistress of the world;’ and the idea is, that Babylon [was the] mistress, and that all other cities were regarded as servants, or as subordinate.”

Isa 47:6  I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.

The LORD gets angry. I don’t think we can comprehend His anger until we, too, are in glorified bodies that cannot sin.

God decided to ruin (profane) Jerusalem and the Temple – a truly big deal to Him. He must secure the repentance of His chosen people.

There is a pretty common TV & movie trope in which the antagonist tells one of his stooges to teach someone a lesson. The stooge then kills the person, much to the disliking of his boss. He didn’t mean for him to kill the guy.

Babylon was the stooge who went too far disciplining the Jews for the LORD. The Chaldeans showed them no mercy. For an example the LORD accused them of elder abuse.

Before the defense of Helm’s Deep Aragorn stirred the forces of Rohan by shouting, “Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none.”

Isa 47:7  And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

Joseph Benson reminds us of the sheer fortitude of the city:

If we consider that the city of Babylon had no less than one hundred gates made of solid brass; that its walls were two hundred feet high, and fifty broad, according to the lowest account given of them by historians, and, according to some, three hundred and fifty feet in height, and eighty-seven in thickness, so that six chariots could go abreast upon them; that it was defended by the river Euphrates, and supplied with provisions for many years; it might well be deemed impregnable: and such a city as this might, with less vanity than any other, boast that she should continue forever, if any thing human could continue forever.

To give you a little perspective, the Statue of Liberty is 305’ tall.The Persians devised a plan whereby they diverted the course of the Euphrates River so that they could go in under the wall. While the residents of the city were distracted, i.e., drunk, the Persian army marched under the walls of Babylon unnoticed. It was claimed the city was taken without a fight.

I think the LORD gave them this strategery.

You know who else has strategies? The Devil. He wants to work them on you. The fall of Babylon can be a lesson for us. The lesson isn’t “Don’t drink,” although that’s not such a bad idea. The lesson is, “Don’t do anything that makes you vulnerable.”

Get your guard up and keep it up!! There will never be a time in your life that you can escape spiritual warfare. There are no furloughs, not even bereavement leave. The devil is a psychopathic liar and murderer. He will pile-on in the worst of times.

Isa 47:8  “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’

Verse eight captures the general opinion of Babylon’s population. They believed themselves invulnerable and possessing wisdom superior to that of any other culture.

King Nebuchadnezzar set the tone. One fine day he said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoke: the kingdom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses” (Daniel 4:31-32).

His humbling resulted in his conversion as per chapter four of Daniel.

The illustration God uses, the “virgin daughter,” is how the Babylonians thought of themselves. It’s nothing new for people to think highly, but wrongly, of themselves. In the Book of the Revelation we see this in the church of the Laodiceans. The gap between how they saw themselves and how Jesus saw them was a Grand Canyon. If you think they are not a good comparison because they were not saved, substitute the church at Ephesus. With everything they had going on there’s no way they thought of themselves as having left their first love.

There is no “how to” here, no Humility for Dummies. Jesus spoke to the Laodiceans and the Ephesians directly by his Word. We assume that some received it, and that some did not. From studying the men and women in the Bible, and godly men and women throughout the church age, it seems to come down to this. Like the apostle Paul you should be able to declare that you are the chief of sinners (First Timothy 1:15). Simultaneously you praise God’s amazing grace in your life. The result ought to be joy unspeakable and full of glory.

#2 – Are We Daughters Who Consort With Devils? (v9-15)

The remaining verses emphasize the occult. Mentioned are “sorceries” (2x), “enchantments” (also 2x), “astrologers,” “stargazers,” and “prognosticators.”

Babylon depended heavily on the “wisdom,” “knowledge,” and “counsels” of the occult. Aren’t you glad we don’t do that in America?

I wish that were true. By all metrics, the occult and occult practices are on the rise:

• According to a survey conducted in 2021, about two in ten Americans believe in spells or witchcraft.
• In an October 2022 article, nbcnews commented, “Witchcraft, which includes Wicca, paganism, folk magic and other New Age traditions, is one of the fastest-growing spiritual paths in America.”
• In 2018 NBC posted an article titled, Number Of Witches Rises Dramatically Across US As Millennials Reject Christianity.

Isa 47:9  But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.

I should mention that their astronomy was considered by some more like science. After all, the Persian Magi correctly identified the star that (somehow) led them to find and worship “He who would be born as King of the Jews.”

Church father Origen, stated that the Magi had a copy of the prophecy of Balaam (found in Numbers 24) about the star coming out of Jacob. It was revealed to them by Daniel. Tertullian, circa AD 190-210, stated that astrology is idolatry, but he believed that the science of the Magi was totally different from the pagan form of astrology.

Isa 47:10  “For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

God calls their occult “wisdom and knowledge”- “wickedness.” A side-effect of their practices was it “warped” them into thinking they were like God. They  “said in [their] heart, I am.” They had the “I” trouble that led to Satan’s rebellion and fall.

Add to that they said, “No one sees me.” This likely refers to them thinking that, since they were like God there was no deity who could judge them.

Isa 47:11  Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

Daniel describes the feast which took place on the night Babylon fell. We explained how King Cyrus took Babylon effortlessly.

The chapter ends with obvious sarcasm. The LORD shows how pitiful was their wisdom and knowledge compared to His omniscience; how puny was their might compared to His omnipotence; how precious was and is His omnipresence compared to their magicians being as vulnerable as stubble is to flame.

There is one more ‘omni’ that isn’t listed. God is omnibenevolent, meaning perfectly & powerfully good. It may not have seemed that way to the Chaldeans, but they had opportunity to obey Him and know His goodness. The choice was theirs.

Isa 47:12  “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth – Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.

Isa 47:13  You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

Isa 47:14  Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before!

Isa 47:15  Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.

Interesting, this reference to “merchants.” We are made aware in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that there will be a Babylon in the Last Days. It will be the capital of the Earth ruled by the antichrist.

We read, “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore” (18:9-11).

I doubt you get together with friends and break-out a Ouija (WEE-je) Board. Somebody is; or I should say 25m somebodies (based on sales).

Just because we’re not conducting pagan rituals it doesn’t mean there might not be some things that we would be better off avoiding. After all, the world around us is a spiritual Babylon.

Will some future Pigpen say, “Don’t think of it as dust. Think of it as the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient America.”

We can ask one additional ‘expert,’ Abraham Lincoln:

We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

I want to take a bi-partisan approach here. You pick the slogan that best aligns with your vote:

• We need to Build Back Spiritually.
• We need to Make America Repent Again.

In the end we will agree that the nation of Israel is, for lack of a better word, the greatest nation ever. Of the myriads of reasons we could cite, I like what the apostle Paul said. Speaking of ethnic Jews in chapter nine of the Book of Romans he describes Israel as “to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”

Simply put, the Savior of the world was born through the nation of Israel. Can anything be greater?

Every other nation is thereby called to a support role in furthering God’s plan and in anticipating His rule.

You’ll Never Be God’s Beast Of Burden (Isaiah 46:1-13)

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each, I noticed Footprints in the Sand. At times there were two sets of footprints; other times there was only one. Curious to know why, I asked the Lord.

The Lord replied, “The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, My child, is when I carried you. The times when you have seen two sets of footprints, My child, you insisted I put you down so that you could go your own way, in your own strength.”

That’s not the way it goes…But maybe it should be?

In the original composition there is no concern about the two sets of footprints. They are only there to make the point that there are times the Lord must carry you. Turns out, those times are all the time!

God says so in verses three & four. “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb: Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.”

“Upheld,” “carry,” “carried,” and “bear,” “from the womb even to your old age.” The Lord carries us through our entire life.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The World Is Out To Crush You, and #2 The Lord Is Here To Carry You.

#1 – The World Is Out To Crush You (v1-2 & 5-13)

When we use the term “the world” we mean the fallen condition of God’s Special Creation that now exists on account of Adam & Eve disobeying the LORD in the beginning. Satan has installed an antagonistic, chaotic system. He is a liar and a murderer.

Satan’s psychologies, philosophies, politics, and religions are lies. They blind you from seeing your need for a Savior who can take your burden of sin upon Himself so that you are forgiven.

I have a bachelors degree in psychology from the prestigious UC campus in Riverside. I’ve asked forgiveness often! The psych department focused on Comparative Psychology. We studied animals to try to understand human behavior. Why would we do that? It’s the evolutionary approach.

They have (had?) a colony of macaque monkeys. One assignment was to sit all day to observe their behavior. I’m being serious. Most of their time was spent grooming one another.

While I’m confessing… I also have a bachelor’s in philosophy. Existentialism was all the rage at UCR. Here is all that you need to know about existentialism. At the graduate level, they urge you not to commit suicide. I’m serious. Existentialism poses an existential threat to your life.

Meanwhile the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Don’t  make the mistake of thinking that a godless person with a worldly education has more wisdom than even a new believer in Jesus. Which one, for example, is going to be in Heaven?

Isa 46:1  Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, A burden to the weary beast.

“Bel” and “Nebo” were the father-and-son god team of Babylon. Their idols rode on carts that beasts of burden hauled – with some difficulty because of their weight. Rather than lifting burdens, these idols created them for their worshippers.

There is no single agreed upon biblical definition of idolatry. We define it as “idols, images, or any God-substitutes.” It is helpful in discussing and determining idolatry to remember the biblical statement that “covetousness is idolatry.” Anything or anyone you covet substitutes for God because it is evidence you are not content with Him.

Your God-substitute can only make things worse because its source is satanic and it has no power to help.

Regarding religion Jesus said, “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matthew 23:4).

The apostle Paul chastised the believers in Corinth saying, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (First Corinthians 6:2-3).

Isa 46:2  They stoop, they bow down together; They could not deliver the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.

Isaiah is describing the near-future of Israel. The Jews would be conquered by Babylon and taken there, held captive there. Babylon’s so-called gods would figuratively “bow down together” when King Cyrus of Medo-Persia conquered them.

Skip to verse five.

Isa 46:5  “To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike?

Isa 46:6  They lavish gold out of the bag, And weigh silver on the scales; They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.

Isa 46:7  They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it And set it in its place, and it stands; From its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer Nor save him out of his trouble.

We immediately agree that idols and images are powerless. Covetousness, however, is pervasive. It can be hidden in our hearts where it becomes septic.

Isa 46:8  “Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors.

Has God done things for you? Of course He has. Remember them; recall them. Then “Act like a Christian!”

Singer Johnny Fontaine went to his Godfather for help. He started to sob, saying he didn’t know what to do. The Godfather grabbed him by the hands and told him, “You can act like a man!” Then he slapped him and said, “What’s the matter with you!”

We all have some of Johnny Fontaine in us and we often require a spiritual “slap in the face.”

Isa 46:9  Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,

Isa 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

Several times in the last few chapters the LORD reminded His chosen nation that He alone can, with 100% accuracy, predict the future. Not only that, but His “counsel,” i.e., His plan, will succeed.

Isa 46:11  Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.

King Cyrus was “the bird of prey from the East.”

Cyrus would help the Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls and the Temple. He would serve the Lord. As far as we can tell, Cyrus was never saved. All the more our surprise at God using him.

Isa 46:12  “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, Who are far from righteousness:

Isa 46:13  I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, For Israel My glory.”

Commentators argue whether God was addressing Babylonians or Jews who were “far from righteousness.” Probably His chosen nation – but why not both?

In verse thirteen God promised that all of their drama with Assyria, Babylon, and Persia would not hinder the plan of redemption. He would “bring [His] righteousness near.” I think God was talking about the first coming of Jesus to die & rise from the dead.  Righteousness was near because Jesus was here. The apostle John said that their “hands” “handled” the Lord (First John 1:1). They touched the God-man.

Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself makes it possible for God to declare people righteous. He has taken upon Himself the sins of the world. Those who believe have their sins exchanged for His righteousness.

Someone has insightfully said, “There are two kinds of gods in this world: The kind you carry and the One who can carry you.”

If you are burdened in any way, it isn’t from the Lord.

#2 – The Lord Is Here To Carry You (v3-4)

The LORD considers Israel His child. Children are carried in the womb, miraculously protected and provided for. They are carried for some time after.  The LORD portrays Himself carrying His children all their days.

Isa 46:3  “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:

The imagery of Jesus constantly carrying me suggests an effortlessness on my part. I add nothing except that I must by faith believe He will never leave me or forsake me.

Expand on that as a personal devotion. It’s amazing.

Let’s modernize this idea of being carried and say I’m in a wheelchair that the Lord is pushing. He is setting the speed and choosing the direction. I am resting.

Why would I bail? Two reasons. First – Because the Lord pushes my wheelchair like it’s Mr.Toad’s wild ride.

The Lord has what I call ‘opposite thinking:’

• He tells us to rejoice in trials.
• Weakness is strength.
• If you humble yourself He exalts you.
• You are expected to take “pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake” (Second Corinthians 12:10).
• God “has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are” (First Corinthians 1:27-28).

Every step in the the life of Jesus on earth was a mind-boggling opposite of what was expected. Born of a virgin? In Bethlehem? From Nazareth? Learning obedience for the first thirty years of His life on earth? The Cross before the Crown? It is all weirdly wonderful.

Secondly, I want to leave footprints in the sand. No one wants to be carried or confined to a wheelchair. It is a surrender to weakness and handicap. God’s strength being revealed in my weakness is poetic on the pages of Scripture. In my own life – not so much.

Isa 46:4  Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

The very fact we age to “gray hairs” and die reminds us something is fundamentally wrong. God’s plan to send Jesus rights all wrongs. But not yet.

So I’m in my wheelchair, trusting Jesus, when all of a sudden a burden gets dumped in my lap. Maybe, as with me, a diagnosis you’d rather not have.

Jesus is still handling the load. Allow me to illustrate. People in wheelchairs at Disneyland will have kids & grandkids sitting on them. They’ve got packages hanging off them and off the chair. Everyone in their party uses the wheelchair as storage.

None of that weighs them down; it is added weight for the one pushing. We, however, believe we are being burdened, sometimes beyond what we can bear.

James begins his NT letter, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (1:2). Do you? Do I? If we did we would sing,

Joy in the World, My Trial has Come,

Let Gene Receive it’s Sting

The apostle Peter understood that the believers he was writing to were “grieved” by their trials. But he immediately told them the purpose of trials was to refine them as a refiner refines gold in the furnace. He told them to “rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory” (1:8).

Believers in Christ enjoy fellowship with their Lord. One particular kind of fellowship is “the fellowship of His suffering” (Philippians 3:10).

The early apostles believed that participating in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering was part of our preparation for sharing in His future glory.

Like Job before me, I want to be able to declare, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5).

The apostle Paul suffered from a long-term illness or disability which he called “the thorn in his flesh.” He let Jesus carry him, saying, “[Jesus] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (Second Corinthians 12:9).

I’ve used the illustration many times, but it’s just too good not to. You remember that scene in Jaws when Quint, Hooper, and Brody were below deck on the  Orca. They started comparing wounds that they had received over the years. They were boasting, wanting to have the worst wound.

The apostle Peter was told by Jesus, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me” (John 21:18-19).

The church fathers say that Peter was crucified at Rome, about 34 years after this, with his head downward. Clemens says that he was led to the crucifixion with his wife, and sustained her in her sufferings by exhorting her to remember the example of her Lord. He also adds that he died, not as the philosophers did, but with a firm hope of heaven, and patiently endured the pangs of the cross.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads, “As Jesus followed the Father’s will, so His disciples should follow their Lord whether the path leads to a cross or to some other difficult experience.”

Sometimes I feel sorry for believers who have no trials. They are missing the fellowship of His suffering.

You can’t be upset with me about ruining Footprints in the Sand for you. My version extols the single set belonging to Jesus.

Maybe we rewrite it again to show tire tracks.

• If you came today burdened and seeking relief, one way to get it is to help another believer with their burden(s). “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2 NIV).
• If you are not a believer, please perk-up:

In Isaiah 53:11 we read, “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”

Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many.”

First Peter 2:24, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.”

Isaiah 45:1-25 – Israel Won’t Be A Thing If It Ain’t Got This King

Donald Trump, aka Cyrus?

Let me explain. President Trump moved the US Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and was hailed as a modern-day King Cyrus.

Trump wasn’t the first to become associated with the ancient Persian ruler on account of aiding Israel:

• The Balfour Declaration of 1917 expressed the British government’s support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. It led to comparisons between Lord Balfour and Cyrus.
• President Harry Truman’s decision to recognize the state of Israel 15 minutes after its declaration of independence in 1948 is often likened to Cyrus’ support for the Jewish people.

@KingCyrusTheRealOne united the empires of Media and Persia. He conquered Babylon just as Israel’s 70yr captivity was ending. Under his rule the Jews were encouraged to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.

The shock with Cyrus is that he was named by Isaiah over 150 years before he was king.

The “anointing” of Cyrus 2700 years ago by God was a crucial moment in redemptive history. It reestablished Israel in their land so that the Messiah would be born in Israel with their Temple intact according to prophecy.

Isaiah has opened our eyes to God’s dealings with nations. It has given us opportunity to consider our own nation. We will continue that today.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1Your Nation Needs Ears To Hear, and #2 Your Nation Needs Knees That Bow.

#1 – Your Nation Needs Ears To Hear (v1-13)

We are introduced to Cyrus…Or are we?

Isa 45:1  “Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held – To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:

The LORD talks “to” Cyrus. He is not so much introducing him to Israel as He is introducing Himself to Cyrus.

It may seem a small point, but I think it is always good to remind ourselves that the subject of the Bible is Jesus Christ. Make it a habit to look for Him while not bending the Scriptures to say something that they don’t.

Cyrus may have been “anointed” with oil as was the manner with kings. God’s anointing means Cyrus was chosen to serve the LORD.   

If you are a Christian then you are chosen to serve Jesus:

• We all “Go,” making disciples of all men.
• In the fellowship of believers there is a listing of “one anothers we all can perform. There are at least 30 of them, and that is not an exhaustive list. A few of the encouragements are, “love one another,” “honor one another,” “build up one another,” “bear one another’s burdens,” and “forgive one another.”
• Beyond that the NT reveals certain supernatural “Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” These are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit so that you can serve Jesus in a way that ministers to others with a heavenly accompaniment.

The LORD “held” Cyrus’ “right hand.” In ceremonies  the ruler of Babylon took the hand of their god Bel. Here the LORD seized Cyrus by the hand. Whose hand would you rather be holding, especially in turbulent times.

Isaiah had a fascination with the comfort of the LORD holding our hand:

• Isaiah 41:10 reads, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
• Isaiah 43:13 reads, “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
• Isaiah 49:16 reads, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands…”

The remainder of verse one is a prediction of Cyrus’ victory over Babylon, continued in verse two.

Isa 45:2  ‘I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron.

Nothing would stop his advance and his victories would be surprisingly easy. The Greek historian Herodotus reported there were one hundred brass gates in the walls surrounding Babylon. No matter. Cyrus would gain access by diverting the Euphrates and going under the wall.

Isa 45:3  I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel.

As if calling him by name over a century before he came to power was not sufficient, LORD would condescend to prove Himself to Cyrus by leading him to discover Indiana Jones like treasures.

The LORD says, “I Am the God of Israel”; He was introducing Himself.

I heard a podcast host introduce a pastor prior to interviewing him. It was 45 seconds of accolades which at least once used the term “great” to describe him. Think of ways to, instead, introduce God.

Isa 45:4  For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.

“Jacob” was the father of the twelve tribes of the nation of “Israel.” They were and continue to be God’s “elect” servant.

God was setting things up for the “sake” of His people. His providence is able to see that His will on earth be done so that His kingdom come.

Isa 45:5  I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me,

Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other;

The word for “God” in verse five is Elohim. We have noted in other studies that this is not a name for God. It is a classification of supernatural beings. There are numerous supernatural beings who inhabit what is called the unseen realm. God is an Elohim, angels are Elohim, etc. No Elohim is our Almighty God.

Isa 45:7  I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.’

This is one of those verses that trouble us deeply. We are immediately drawn to, “I create calamity.”Calvinists the world over feel a sudden thrill as they describe ‘Calamity Jesus.’

The Persian’s were dualists. A dualist is someone who believes that Good and Evil are independent and more or less equal warring forces in the world. “Light” is good; “Darkness” is bad. “Peace” is good; “Calamity” is bad.

In modern times dualism is called GeorgeLucasism. It’s the Force in Star Wars. Maybe good; maybe bad.

Dualism is nonsense. God and the Devil are in no way equals. God’s plan is never in jeopardy. He is over all things, in charge of everything, and interjects Himself to protect the work of redeeming you and His creation along with you.

“That’s all well and good, Pastor Gene, but it still says He creates calamity.” The LORD has been talking about nations, not individuals. He determines whether a nation will enjoy peace or calamity:

• Medo-Persia would know peace.
• Babylon would suffer calamity.

Moreover we will see in a moment that peace or calamity depended on their free-will choices.

Isa 45:8  “Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it.

“Rain” from the “heavens” and the “earth” opening up in “springs” reminds you of what? Yes, the global flood. Isaiah looks to the far future when God will establish His Kingdom on earth. “Righteousness” and “salvation” will overflow the earth as the waters of the flood did.

Isa 45:9  “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

Isa 45:10  Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”

It is absurd to think a child in the womb could question their parent’s choices in bringing them into the world. Isaiah is conveying the message that it is not for us to question or challenge the ways of God. But he does so tenderly, reminding us we are His children.

The Potter working with the clay is another favorite illustration some folks use to try to prove that God’s sovereignty and man’s free-will are incompatible. The illustration comes from the prophet Jeremiah. When he used it he, too, was talking about nations, not individuals. And he clearly stated that God reacts to a nation’s decision to either obey Him or disobey Him. If anything the illustration proves the opposite of what meticulous determinists think.

Isa 45:11  Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

Isa 45:12  I have made the earth, And created man on it. I – My hands – stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded.

The Jews accused the LORD of being a potter with “no hands.” They did not like what the LORD was shaping – captivity.

Isa 45:13  I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city And let My exiles go free, Not for price nor reward,” Says the LORD of hosts.

In a bizarre unexpected move, God would use a pagan king to deliver His people and forward His redemption agenda.

No doubt someone took the scroll of Isaiah and read it to Cyrus. He had ears to hear. Would to God our leaders would “hear” the Bible and the Lord calling us to national “repentance!”

#2 – Your Nation Needs Knees That Bow (v14-25)

Revival, according to Ian Murray, is “an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, brought about by the intercession of Christ, resulting in (1)A new degree of life in the churches and (2)A widespread movement of grace among the unconverted.”

I would submit that we put too little emphasis on the outpouring of grace on believers. We are “prone to wander.” We leave our first love and do not even realize it. We ought to quit looking around for revival and look within:

• Within our individual bodies as the Temple of God.
• Within the church collectively as the Temple of God.

Isa 45:14  Thus says the LORD: “The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush And of the Sabeans, men of stature, Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours; They shall walk behind you, They shall come over in chains; And they shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, And there is no other; There is no other God.’ ”

I say this with reverence: Isaiah is all over the place! He talks about the past, present, near future, and far future. In verse fourteen he described the far future:

• If nations “shall walk behind” Israel, then they are the world’s prominent nation.
• The observation that some Gentiles nations will be “in chains” is obviously forward-looking to a time Israel will have such authority over nations

Those things tell you Isaiah was describing the Kingdom on Earth, the Millennium.

Isa 45:15  Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!

In what sense is God hiding? Albert Barnes writes, “That is, ‘that hides Your counsels and plans.’ The idea is, that the ways of God seems to be dark until the distant event discloses His purpose; that a long series of mysterious events seem to succeed each other, trying to the faith of His people, and where the reason of His doings cannot be seen.”

Isa 45:16  They shall be ashamed And also disgraced, all of them; They shall go in confusion together, Who are makers of idols.

Isa 45:17  But Israel shall be saved by the LORD With an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced Forever and ever.

Isa 45:18  For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Isa 45:19  I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

Woven throughout history is God’s plan to save lost sinners by sending a Savior through the nation of Israel. Typical of God, the plan seems foolhardy and always one episode away from total failure. Nevertheless Israel will “be saved by the LORD With an everlasting salvation.”

Isa 45:20  “Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save.

Isa 45:21  Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.

God challenges those who have chosen idols over Him to produce one shred of evidence that their ‘gods’ have ever accurately revealed the future.

Isa 45:22  “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

Isa 45:23  I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.

Every knee shall bow, Every tongue confess,That Jesus Christ is Lord.

Isa 45:24  He shall say, ‘Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him.

Isa 45:25  In the LORD all the descendants of Israel Shall be justified, and shall glory.’ ”

William MacDonald writes, “This will find its fulfillment in the Millennium. Then men will acknowledge the Lord Jesus as the only source of ‘righteousness and strength.’ ‘All’ His enemies will come to Him in contrition, and ‘Israel shall be justified and shall glory’ in Him, not in idols.”

Where is the United States in Bible prophecy? We can look at two places.

(1)The first place we find the US in prophecy would be Jeremiah 18. We have alluded to it; it is the Potter & Clay passage. God tells us, “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.” (v8-10).

It would be great if our leaders were Christ-like, but even those that are Cyrus-like can honor God.

(2)The other place in Scripture we see the US is less hopeful. Zechariah announced, “And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against [Israel]” (12:3).

We will be one of “all the nations” against Israel. One commentator said, “There is a gathering storm of worldwide antisemitism and America’s mind is slowly being poisoned by this malignant cancer.”

We are not predicting, only reporting. And remember – we expect Jesus to come imminently to remove His church from earth in the pre-tribulation rapture.

Jesus has the whole world in His hands. More importantly, He is holding on to your hand. Tighten you grip in response.

Just When You Thought Israel Was Out, God Pulls Them Back In! (Isaiah 44:21-28)

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…”

… is one of the iconic lines spoken by Michael Corleone. It seems an appropriate caption for the nation of Israel.

Israel split after King David’s death:

• The 10 northern tribes were called Israel with Samaria for their capital.
• The 2 southern tribes were called Judah with Jerusalem for their capital.

Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722BC. It was so devastating that you still hear people reference ‘the ten lost tribes.’ BTW – in the Revelation we see all twelve tribes. The ten are not so lost after all.

Ahead in prophecy was the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem fell in 586BC. The Babylonians systematically destroyed the city and Solomon’s Temple. Many of Judah’s inhabitants were exiled to Babylon.

Who could survive such destruction and dispersion? Yet here was the LORD talking to them about being reinstated as His servant once the Babylonian captivity ended.

It is a potent example of human faithlessness met by divine faithfulness.

God’s promises to Israel cannot fail. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1The Way Back To The Lord Is Paved With Grace, and #2 The Way Forward With The Lord Is Paced By Grace.

#1 – The Way Back To The Lord Is Paved With Grace (v21-23)

Are you faithless?

The apostle Paul told Pastor Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (Second Timothy 2:13). I take “we” to mean believers. “If” could be “when” or “since.” “Faithless” can be “unfaithful,” or “disobedient.” So yes, every believer has experience with being faithless in the sense of being unfaithful and disobedient.

Realizing our own frailties will help us rejoice in God’s gracious compassion for His chosen nation.

Isa 44:21 “Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!

“Jacob” is the grandson of Abraham. His name would be changed by God to “Israel.” His boys were the twelve tribes. Previously in chapter forty-four they had been shown the folly of idolatry. Instead of forming idols of metal and wood they ought to “remember” God had “formed” them to be His “servant” among the Gentiles nations.

You could almost count on Israel backsliding. God however, called them His “servant.” His calling of Israel was irrevocable.

Could God make it any clearer that the physical nation of Israel cannot be abandoned by Him?

Isa 44:22  I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

Dr. Henry Thiessen discussing what it means to be “redeemed” said, “The term ‘redemption’ alludes sometimes (1)to the payment of a debt and sometimes (2)to the liberation of a captive.”

To oversimplify, the human race owes a debt of sin that we cannot pay, and are therefore captive slaves to sin and Satan. In the Garden of Eden, immediately after our first parents sinned, the Lord said He would come as our Redeemer to pay the debt and set us free.

Sins are “blotted out.” Commentators say this is an accounting term. It refers to eliminating debt in a ledger. Another simple way of looking at redemption is that the Lord purchased your debt and replaced it with His righteousness.

“Clouds” are mentioned twice in the NKJV. It describes fog and the mist that precedes the fog.

Your sins hovered over and surrounded you like a thick Tule fog.

No more foggy days for those who have been redeemed.

Isa 44:23  Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And glorified Himself in Israel.

• From the stellar “heavens” we journey to the center of the earth.
• From atop the highest mountain we can see the forest for the trees.

Everything we normally call ‘nature’ is personified as worshiping God’s redemption of mankind. Let’s call it what it is: Creation. The apostle Paul writes, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

We have the tendency to assume that a material universe is somehow evil. It isn’t. The future universe will be very much material, only without the curse brought upon God’s original creation when mankind sinned. Dr. Michael Vlach writes, “God has designed that our eternal home involves a real place for people with resurrected, physical bodies. We will reside on a restored planet earth where we will fellowship with other saved saints and enjoy the beauties of the new creation, including all of its beauty and cultural delights.”

In Roman’s 11:29 we are told, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” It is a promise made to Israel Israel.

No matter Israel’s faithlessness, God remains faithful.

“No matter” doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. The Assyrian conquest and dispersion… The Babylonian conquest and captivity… The Roman destruction and dispersion… The wandering of Jews for some 2000yrs, hated and persecuted by every nation they fled to… Wars and rumors of war… Throughout history Israel suffered the consequences of her faithlessness.

The worst for Israel is yet to come. What we commonly call the Great Tribulation is better named the Time of Jacob’s trouble. That future seven years described so graphically in the Book of the Revelation affects everyone on the earth, but it’s focus is the nation of Israel. It is God’s plan for “all Israel” to be “saved.”

#2 – The Way Forward With The Lord Is Paced By Grace (v24-28)

Is our emphasizing the grace of God’s faithfulness in our faithlessness too easy?

You may have heard the term ‘easy-believism.’ It is a derogatory comment that assumes if you preach grace you don’t encourage real discipleship.

In response to the accusation of easy-believism Dr. Charles Ryrie said, “It’s not easy to believe.” Our understanding of discipleship is summed-up by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

I’ve concluded that if you are not being accused of preaching too much grace then you’re not preaching it enough. The apostle Paul understood this when he said, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more… What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Romans 5:21 & 6:1-2). He anticipated the objection that he was giving believers a license to sin.

Twice the LORD calls Israel is His redeemed “servant.” The remaining verses tell us what makes a servant faithful in what is a single sentence in Hebrew, one of the longest in the OT.

Dr. Abraham Maslov took a radical approach in his theory of human psychology. Instead of studying dysfunction, he studied ‘healthy’ people in order to recommend their self-actualizing to those struggling. Great approach – IF there were any healthy, self-actualized people; i.e., people with no sin nature.

In this next sentence we are encouraged to look at the one Person who did live a perfect, sinless life. The emphasis is not on us at all. We are not told how to serve, only to look at Jesus as servant.

Isa 44:24  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

“Your Redeemer.” You are helpless to help yourself. The Lord has done everything necessary. You’ve heard it said, Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. That’s the idea.

“Formed you from the womb” applies here to the nation as a whole. God called Abram to follow Him and give “birth” to a new nation.

Next we see God as Creator. The apostle Paul wrote, “For by [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Creation is the first, great witness to Almighty God. It’s majesty ought to overwhelm. In context, however, we are to understand Jesus’ creating the universe as part of His service to the Father. If the Godhead were going to create a being in their image  we would need a universe, a galaxy, a solar system, and a planet with atmosphere on which to interact.

Isa 44:25  Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness;

There is a lot of opposition to biblical Christianity. Some is supernatural; some seems more natural, but still is inspired by demonic forces. Men give themselves titles to promote their opposition. Whether they are babblers [those who are familiar with secret powers], diviners, or wise men, their analyses and proposed solutions are foolishness. Their philosophies, psychologies, and politics, can never admit that salvation must be all of grace, without works, so that no one can boast. The fact everything but the Bible is man-centered dooms all the efforts of men to make sense of the universe.

Isa 44:26  Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers;

When God sent out His OT servants, and they spoke for him, He confirmed it. Take Elijah and Elisha as our example.

Elijah performed 14 notable miracles. They included:

• Causing the rain the cease for 3½ years (First Kings17:1).
• The resurrection of the widow’s son (First Kings 17:22
• The parting of the Jordan River (Second Kings 2:8).

Elisha was told he would have a double portion of the Spirit upon his life. We take that to mean at the very least that he would do twice as many miracles. And he did; he performed 28. They included:

• The floating of the axe head (Second Kings 6:6).
• The healing of Naaman (Second Kings 5:14).
• Smiting the Syrian army with blindness (Second Kings 6:18).

The NT apostles were promised that signs & wonders would accompany their Gospel preaching. There are some notable miracles in the Book of Acts.

This continues in the Church Age in which we live. However, the New Testament teaches us that our greatest testimony in this dispensation is to show His strength in our weakness, and to suffer for Jesus Christ. We are fools who confound the wise.

Isa 44:26  … Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places;

Isaiah prophesied the rebuilding of Judah before the city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. He was prophesying about 150 years before these events.

What happens next is truly astonishing.

Isa 44:27  Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;

Isa 44:28  Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “”Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Let’s get right to it: Isaiah announced Cyrus by name at least a century before he was born.

King Cyrus of Media & Persia, the Medo-Persian empire. He would conquer Babylon. Isaiah even prophesied how it would happen: “Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers.’ The great Euphrates River flowed into Babylon under its massive wall. God suggested to Cyrus that he divert the flow and enter the city secretly along the path of the river. And that is the way historians wrote it.

Cyrus would say, “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up” (Second Chronicles 36:21).

Once again the emphasis is on the LORD. He overrules pagan kings if it is necessary to serve His people.

God’s Master Class for servants teaches one simple lesson: “Look at Me, at what I’ve done for you, and do likewise enabled by God the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on the night before His crucifixion. He said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:14-17).

Over & over & over again God is faithful towards faithless Israel and reinstates her to serve Him. How can He not do the same with us, believing Gentiles? He does. When we are faithless, He remains faithful.

It is beyond wonderful to be reinstated to our service. It is also a dangerous moment. We have a human tendency to want to rush forward in our flesh, making new rules for ourselves. The apostle Paul strongly reminds us, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).

Get back on the path and let your pace be set by the grace of God.

In the very good Bible Knowledge Commentary we read this concerning Paul’s teaching to Timothy.  “Jesus will not deny even unprofitable members of His own body. True children of God cannot become something other than children, even when disobedient and weak. Christ’s faithfulness to Christians is not contingent on their faithfulness to Him.”

The author unequivocally states that once you are a child of God you cannot become something else.

Once you are saved are you always saved?

I have reduced the entire debate to one person: Lot. We read in Second Peter that God “delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2:7-9).

Unless Peter had written what he did you would in no way imagine Lot was saved. He was quarrelsome, selfish, opportunistic, materialistic,  and compromising. He got drunk not once but on successive nights and committed incest with his two daughters.

When you believe God you are declared righteous. Not because of anything you have done but on account of everything the LORD has done to redeem you. A commentator from the Reformed camp put it this way: “Lot was simultaneously righteous and sinful.”

• I am simultaneously righteous and sinful.
• You are simultaneously righteous and sinful.

Thank God for grace. One final quote: “Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.”

God Is A Name Changer (Isaiah 44:1-20)

Lamb Chop, Pumpkin, Nugget, Muffin, Snookums, Pookie, Chickadee

Brides magazine is usually a rock-solid source but they biffed it this time. The names I read are on their 2023 list of “Sweet, Romantic, Quirky Names.” The article in Brides says, “If you are in need of a little inspiration, we’ve got you covered. We rounded up the very best nicknames – from the totally timeless to the trendy and new school.”

I say go full Seinfeld and call each other Schmoopie.   

The LORD reveals an endearing name He had given the nation.

It jumps-out at us in verse two, “Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun [J-shu-ron], whom I have chosen.”

The folks doing good Gospel work at gotquestions.org write, “Jeshurun is a poetic reference to the nation of Israel. It is a term of endearment; the Greek Septuagint translates Jeshurun as ‘beloved one,’ using a form of the word agape. The name Jeshurun is used three times in the Book of Deuteronomy and once in Isaiah. In each case the name occurs in a poetic setting and refers to Israel, God’s beloved people.”

If Moses died circa 1450BC, and Isaiah was prophesying circa 450BC, then the LORD hadn’t used the name Jeshurun for about a thousand years.

But here is the kicker. Jesus is going to give you a new name in the future.

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 Are You Looking Forward To Being Renamed?, and #2 Are You “Living Forward” Like You’ll Be Renamed?

#1 – Are You Looking Forward To Being Renamed? (v1-8)

If you are in Christ, a believer who has been saved by grace through faith, Jesus has an endearing name for you. In Revelation 2:17 Jesus said, “To him who overcomes… I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” ’

No longer will boys named Sue have to fight their way through life.

Isa 44:1  “Yet hear me now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen.

What is the origin of the nation of Israel? For that matter, where did nations come from? In response to mankind’s rebellion at the Tower of Babel the LORD confounded languages and “scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” It resulted in 70 nations.

The LORD started a new nation through which His Garden of Eden promise to mankind of sending a Redeemer would be fulfilled. That “chosen” nation is Israel through the 12 sons of “Jacob.”

Isa 44:2  Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Is it strange to think of a nation as being “formed from the womb”? Not really. We often say a nation was born, or the birth of a nation. The LORD was reminding them that they were His nation to carry out His plan.

“Jeshurun” means righteous one. Every man, woman, and child is born unrighteous. “There is none righteous, not one.” How then can the LORD call the unrighteous, righteous?

God became a man. He added humanity to His deity. When Jesus, the God-man, died on the Cross and spectacularly rose from the dead, He conquered sin and death. As a result when you believe God He declares you righteous because of what Jesus did.

Quoting Genesis 15:6 the apostle Paul said, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3).

In the MCU, Black Widow more than once mentions that she has “red” in her ledger that needs to be removed. She thinks good deeds will erase it.

• Believe God and sin is removed from your ledger.
• Believe God and righteousness is put in your ledger.

One of the results Jeshurun was promised is that the LORD would “give [them] a new heart, and… put a new spirit in [them]… take out [their] stony, stubborn heart and give [them] a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26 NLT).

The Jewish officials who rejected Jesus on behalf of the nation chose to keep their stony, stubborn heart. This was made clear by Stephen, the first martyr of the church. He said to those Jews about to stone  him, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).

After a few decades of continued outreach to His beloved Jeshurun, God pivoted. The apostle Paul quoted Isaiah to the Jews and declared God’s interim plan, saying “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:28).

This period of time, this dispensation, is now. It is the Church Age.

Regarding Israel we sometimes say something like, “God has set-aside His chosen people for a time.” That is true, but it doesn’t mean God is ignoring Israel. He is still ‘God at work’ with them:

• They are a witness to the centuries old prophecies that they would be regathered to their land, as a nation, in the Last Days.
• They are a witness to the centuries old prophecies that they will be regathered in unbelief, not  believing that Jesus is their Messiah.
• They are a witness to the centuries old prophecies that they would be troublesome to all the nations of the world.

On a more intimate note, the Lord’s work saving Gentiles is said to provoke Israel to jealousy. Paul explained, “But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” (Romans 11:11).

Isa 44:3  For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;

Isa 44:4  They will spring up among the grass Like willows by the watercourses.’

The promise of God the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling the believer came upon the church in the second chapter of Acts. Jews who receive Jesus are born-again just like us and receive the Spirit. The nation will receive Jesus prior to His return to earth. All Israel that survives to the end will be saved.

The second half of Isaiah that started in chapter 40 is a 150-years-in-advance prophecy about Jerusalem being conquered by Babylon, and Jews removed there as captives. Isaiah sees way farther than that, to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (the Great Tribulation) and the return of Messiah to establish and reign on earth for a one-thousand year period called the Millennium.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, “The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon every Jew living at that point will lead to the national regeneration of Israel. Then God will restore His people to their land. This final restoration will occur after the tribulation.”

There is a fun what we might call ‘mash-up’ in verses three & four:

• One minute Isaiah is describing the earth being transformed in the Millennium with abundant water such that grass & willows spring-up everywhere.
• The next minute Isaiah lets you know that it’s a metaphor for individual believers having the Holy Spirit in abundance like a flood. And that there will be a population explosion (represented by the “grass” and “willows” springing up everywhere).

Isa 44:5  One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ And name himself by the name of Israel.

These are all different ways of giving testimony, or what we call witnessing. The Millennium begins populated exclusively by mortal believers. Their children will need to be saved. Hence, witnessing.

Isa 44:6  “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.

The LORD promised a Redeemer the moment Adam & Eve rebelled and sinned in the Garden of Eden. A Redeemer Who could and would purchase the human race out of slavery to sin, Satan, and death. The Bible tells the story of the Redeemer and His work of redemption.

In the Revelation we are told 4x that Jesus is the first and last, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Coupled with what Scripture says here, we are confident Jesus is God.

Isa 44:7  And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, Let them show these to them.

Isa 44:8  Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ ”

Redemption was the LORD’s plan from the beginning. He set it in motion and it is following His “order.” He “appointed” the Jews to be the instrument on earth of revealing His redemption, to “show” it. That which God “declared” to occur in the future did occur and will occur.

God it’s so “God” that even when Israel fails to be His witness they are His witness:

• In the future they will be a witness that the Time of Jacob’s Trouble has begun by signing a peace agreement with the world leader who will become known as the antichrist.
• In the future they will be a witness that Daniel’s Last Days countdown is literal when they the build their Temple
• In the future they will be a witness that Satan has been cast down to earth and has only 1260 days left to terminate all Jews.
• In the future they will be a witness that God will keep every promise as He arranges to save them from the Devil’s savagery.

Jesus wrote seven letters to seven churches. In each He ended  saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.“

The plural “churches” means that everything promised one church applied to each church both then and now.

It’s not uncommon for believers to get a new name:

• In the Old Testament, Abram was renamed Abraham, Sarai was renamed Sarah, and Jacob was renamed Israel.
• In the New Testament, Jesus told Simon that he would be called Peter.

Yes, the definitions of the names are important. Don’t overlook that they are terms of endearment. That intimate aspect takes precedence over whatever else the name change indicates. You & I are the Lord’s Snookums.

#2 – Are You “Living Forward” Like You’ll Be Renamed? (v9-20)

In the remaining verses the LORD takes idolatry head-on. In a previous study I reminded us that there is not one agreed upon definition of “idols” and “idolatry” among theologians. I like this as a biblical definition: “Idolatry refers to worshiping idols, images, or other ‘God-substitutes.’ ”

The description “idol worship” may not be helpful in identifying God-substitutes. Let’s use the red Ferrari 250 GTO I want as an example. If I owned it, I would not bow down to it, or offer it gifts, or sing to it & about it. I wouldn’t put money in the glove box as an offering of worship. But I wouldn’t be in the clear regarding potential idolatry.

When I was brand new to following Jesus I read A Severe Mercy. It is an autobiography by Sheldon Vanauken relating his relationship with his wife, their friendship with C.S. Lewis, conversion to Christianity, and a subsequent tragedy.

Sheldon’s wife, Jean, had a Schmoopie name: Davy. Sheldon & Davy didn’t want anything to become an idol. Sheldon recalled, “Over-valued possessions, we decided, were a burden.”

They bought a brand new car. So that it would not be over-valued he said, “When we got our first glossy new car, we hit it severely with a hammer” to dent it.

To inspire you, the Ushers are in the parking lot right now with hammers, looking for newer vehicles. You’ll thank us later.

We form idols that are not objects at all. In fact, the most prevalent idolatry is unseen except by God. It resides in your flesh, in your unredeemed natural body with its propensity to sin. In Colossians 3:5 the apostle Paul warned, “covetousness… is idolatry.”

One reason that coveting is idolatrous is that you are saying you cannot be satisfied unless you have the person or possession or position or power you covet. It is a declaration that Jesus is not enough for you. His love and grace are not sufficient for you.

One commentator wrote, “Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in the Lord.”

Contentment is only to be found in seeking first the Kingdom of God, looking forward to life with Jesus in the eternal city whose builder and maker is the One who knows you by an endearing name you will receive when you see Him.

I’m going to use the MSG version to read the remaining verses. It’s a little less complicated for a longer read.

Isa 44:9  All those who make no-god idols don’t amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing – they’re total embarrassments!

Isa 44:10  Who would bother making gods that can’t do anything, that can’t “god”?

Isa 44:11  Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.

Isa 44:12  The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil – such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.

Isa 44:13  The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape – a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel.

Isa 44:14  He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain.

Isa 44:15  Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships – carves it into a god shape and prays before it.

Isa 44:16  With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: “Ah, this is the life.”

Isa 44:17  And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design – a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, “Save me. You’re my god.”

Isa 44:18  Pretty stupid, wouldn’t you say? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all?

Isa 44:19  Doesn’t it occur to them to say, “Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I’ve used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!”

Isa 44:20  This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can’t even look at what he’s doing, can’t even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, “This is crazy.”

Believers are encouraged to “live forward.”

• Abraham “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
• The apostle Paul wrote, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
• “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33).

Corrie ten Boom said, “Hold loosely to the things of this life, so that if God requires them of you, it will be easy to let them go.”

I would never presume to hold a candle to her, but I’d suggest one change in her quote. “Hold loosely to the things of this life, so that [WHEN, not “if”]  God requires them of you, it will be easy to let them go.”

Fuhgeddaboudit (Isaiah 43:1-28)

Often considered Italian-American Mafia slang, fuhgeddaboudit is East Coast English. It entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016. The definition reads, “In representations of regional speech (associated especially with New York and New Jersey), ‘forget about it’ is used to indicate that a suggested scenario is unlikely or undesirable.”  Their sample sentence: “So you think you’ll have enough money to retire? Fuhgeddaboudit!”

Look with me at verse eighteen: “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.”

• In the NIV “Do not remember” is rendered “Forget the former things.”
• In the MSG “Do not remember” is rendered “Forget about what happened.”

What former things happened to the Jews? This chapter is especially interested in their dispersions. In verses five and six we read, “I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth.”

The emphasis is on the LORD bringing them back from dispersion, and not just once.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Don’t Forget To Forget The Former Things, and #2 Do Remember To Remember The Future Things.   

#1 – Don’t Forget To Forget The Former Things (v1-22)

The word diaspora refers to a large group of people who share a cultural and regional origin but are living away from their traditional homeland, usually by forced emigration.

The nation of Israel was dispersed several times. Two major times that we encounter in Isaiah involve Assyria and Babylon. Two others involve Rome:

• Writing before 62AD, the Book of James is addressed “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (1:1).
• In 70AD the Romans sacked Jerusalem and took the Temple apart stone-by-stone. Jews fled all over the world. They remained diaspora until May 1948.

Isa 43:1  But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.

Abraham was chosen to become father of a new nation. His grandson, Jacob, would be the father of the twelve tribes, the nation of Israel.

In the Book of Exodus God said He redeemed the nation from slavery in Egypt (6:6-8). Every Jew in the nation is “called” and many believe and are saved. The Jews who believe God, as Abraham did, are the LORD’s. They are justified by grace through faith just as was Abraham.

Isa 43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.

In point of fact the Jews suffered greatly throughout human history. For every Daniel untouched by lions there were multitudes killed. This, then, is a national promise to protect His people from total destruction. The LORD always preserves and protects a remnant of Jews.

Isa 43:3  For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

One hundred fifty years future from Isaiah the Jews would be conquered and taken captive by Babylon. After 70yrs the LORD raised-up King Cyrus of Persia to free the Jews and permit them to go home.

Thomas Constable writes, “Perhaps the LORD would give Persia rulership over Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, as rewards for allowing the Israelites to return to their homeland.”

Isa 43:4  Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life.

Despite their history of faithlessness and failure, the LORD would “honor” them whenever they repented and turned to Him.

The nation of Israel was so bad that it has prompted Christians through the ages to conclude that God has closed the book on Israel. Any and all promises God made to Israel are transferred to the church. No, no, no, no. The apostle Paul said, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:2).

He has made a way to forgive our sins without compromising His holiness. Jesus is the way. He died then rose from death. He offers whosoever will believe in Him to take their sin and exchange it for His righteousness.

John Nelson Darby wrote, “The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace.”

In the ISV the end of verse four reads, “I’m giving up people in your place, and nations in exchange for your life.” We know from the Bible that the LORD has installed supernatural rulers over the nations. This wording makes it sound like the LORD is playing a supernatural version of Monopoly.

Does God really negotiate with supernatural terrorists? Before you say “No,” remember the first two chapters in Job. Besides, no one can out maneuver God.

In the MSG paraphrase it reads, “That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.”

I am constantly pointing out that Isaiah is writing to and about Israel, not the church. But when something is said that is universal, we can claim it for ourselves. Jesus has this same self-sacrificing love for you and I.

The Lord negotiates for us, from a position of almighty power. Jesus said to Peter, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).

Isa 43:5  Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;

Isa 43:6  I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth –

The Jews would be taken away by force to Babylon. This, however, is not the diaspora return Isaiah is describing:

• A lot of Jews chose to remain in Babylon.
• Those who returned did not come from all points of the compass, or from “the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah prophesied that all nations will be involved. It is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. We commonly call it the Great Tribulation. It ends after 7rs with the Return of the King to establish the promised Kingdom of God on Earth.

Isa 43:7  Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

• We know from elsewhere in the Bible, in both Testaments, that “all Israel will be saved.”
• We know from Matthew 25 that multitudes of Gentiles will be saved.

When it says “created, “formed,” and “made,” I think there is more to it than God forming us in the womb. Don’t get me wrong; as Tony the Tiger would say, “That’s great.”

I think it is referring to the fact that as believers we are new creatures who will inhabit a new creation at the consummation of the age.

Isa 43:8  Bring out the blind people who have eyes, And the deaf who have ears.

The scene in verses eight through thirteen is like a courtroom where God’s deity and sovereignty over the nations is being defended.

We’ve all seen enough trials on TV to be familiar with expert witnesses. The ‘expert’ witnesses God uses are physically handicapped. We wouldn’t go that route but it’s so ‘God.’

• The physically blind and deaf can see and hear that God is God.
• Unbelievers who can physically see and hear are spiritually blind and deaf.

God prefers to use the foolish things and that is us.

Isa 43:9  Let all the nations be gathered together, And let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, And show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”

“Show us former things” points to God being 100% accurate in His prophecies. Case closed!

Isa 43:10  “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.

Isa 43:11  I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior.

Isa 43:12  I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the LORD, “that I am God.

“I am He… I am the LORD… I am God.” God demands your verdict. Eternal life hangs in the balance.

Three times the LORD said, “You are My witnesses.”  We are, too. The question is, “Am I a credible witness?” Think of it this way: Would my testimony about my relationship with Jesus help the defense or the prosecution?

Isa 43:13  Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”

Isa 43:14  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon, And bring them all down as fugitives – The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.

Isa 43:15  I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”

Technical point: The Chaldeans were the ethnic people who for a time ruled the Babylonian Empire.

In Babylon the Jews would read what Isaiah prophesied over a century earlier. They’d be encouraged. To paraphrase Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest, God would “Never give up, never surrender.”

Isa 43:16  Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea And a path through the mighty waters,

Isa 43:17  Who brings forth the chariot and horse, The army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):

This is another nod to the Exodus from Egypt. When God parted the Red Sea for Israel, He drowned the pursuing Egyptians. This was the kind of past event they should remember.

Isa 43:18  “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.

Fuhgeddaboudit doesn’t apply universally to their past.

The diaspora in particular was not to occupy their minds. This kind of forgetting is expressed by the apostle Paul when he writes, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Isa 43:19  Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

Isa 43:20  The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen.

This is a Millennial scene. This is the thousand-year Kingdom of God on earth, after all Israel is taken through the Great Tribulation and saved to greet Jesus at His return.

Isa 43:21  This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.

Singing praises to the Lord, might be part of what this verse is expressing. But it is deeper than that. The word “formed” is molded. It would be a word you could use of a potter working with his clay. God is molding you, shaping you, in such a way that your life exudes praise. Each of us ought to enlist the help of God the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, so that everything we do is a praise to our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul wrote, “but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Albert Barnes wrote,

“It may be, and is, profitable for a Christian to look over the past mercies of God to his soul, in order to awaken emotions of gratitude in the heart, and to think of his shortcomings and errors, to produce penitence and humility. But none of these things should be allowed for one moment to divert the mind from the purpose to win the incorruptible crown. And it may be remarked in general, that a Christian will make more rapid advances in piety by looking forward than by looking backward. Forward we see everything to cheer and animate us – the crown of victory, the joys of heaven, the society of the blessed – the Savior beckoning to us and encouraging us.

Backward, we see everything to dishearten and to humble. Our own unfaithfulness; our coldness, deadness, and dullness; the little zeal and ardor which we have, all are fitted to humble and discourage. He is the most cheerful Christian who looks onward, and who keeps heaven always in view.”

#2 – Do Remember To Remember The Future Things (v22-28)

We interpret this set of verses in their context. The nation of Israel had been, and would yet be, dispersed. God tells them point-blank it was their own doing.

The nation became a prodigal son who would never wake up to their status without a severe mercy drawing them back.

Isa 43:22  “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel.

Isa 43:23  You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings, Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, Nor wearied you with incense.

Isa 43:24  You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; But you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

Talk about a one-sided relationship. The more the LORD blessed them, the more they “burdened” Him with their “iniquities.”

We know something about this kind of rebuke. Jesus wrote to His church in Ephesus. He told them they had “left” their first love. It wasn’t on account of their backsliding, but rather because they were doing the work of God in the energy of the flesh.

It is obvious when sin is the problem. Not so much when you are laboring with patience and persevering. But equally, if not more, dangerous.

Isa 43:25  “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.

“Blots out” is erase. Do erasers ever work? I remember erasing stuff with my #2 pencil and the paper tearing.

Who remembers white-out?

Our ledgers won’t look like they’ve been erased and whited-out. It will be just as if I’d never sinned.

Isa 43:26  Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.

This is a confrontation. The LORD wants to hear their case against Him. He’s saying, “Am I wrong?” If He is wrong about their sin, they will be acquitted.

Nope. They are convicted.

Isa 43:27  Your first father sinned, And your mediators have transgressed against Me.

Isa 43:28  Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, And Israel to reproaches.

If this is a courtroom scene, we can think of this as a closing argument. “First father” has to be Abraham. Scripture unashamedly reveals times he was far-out of the will of God. The LORD was saying, “Like father, like son.” Or, in the case of Jacob, “Like father, like grandson.”

Found guilty, the punishment of withholding blessing from the nation would be enforced. The “prince’s of the Sanctuary” are the priests and their Levite assistants. They would become “profane,” a word that encompasses a slew of carnal, material, idolatrous pursuits. Their example would corrupt the nation. It was a devastating downward spiral.

In the previous verses the LORD promised He would bring them back from Babylon. Of course, that means they would first have to be taken there!

There will be a great gathering of Israel when Jesus returns. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks” (16:14-16).

This is only partially fulfilled in the modern state of Israel. Israel’s greatest diaspora is yet to come. In the very middle of the seven-year Time of Jacobs Trouble Jews will flee Jerusalem in order to avoid the wrath of the antichrist. The Lord will keep ⅓︎ of them safe. They will receive Christ. All surviving Israel will be saved.

Will the church be in the Time of Jacob’s Trouble?

“Fuhgeddaboudit”

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (First Thessalonians 4:16-18).

I’ve Got A Fury And The Only Prescription Is More Captivity (Isaiah 42:18-25)

“Inconceivable!”

Or how about this: “I do not mean to pry, but you don’t by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?”

So many quotable quotes come from The Princess Bride. If you are unfamiliar, “It tells the story of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley being accompanied by companions befriended along the way who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck.”

It’s a solid story of love fueling a relentless pursuit of the one loved. As Westley said, “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”

There is a relentless pursuit of the one loved in our text.

It’s dissimilar to Westley’s in that the LORD is doing the pursuing of a people whose love for Him had grown cold. ‘Frozen’ would be a better descriptor. He nevertheless remains undaunted and sacrifices to rekindle their passion.

This isn’t the first time the LORD went after the Jews. And He is doing it right now with Israel regathered in their Promised Land.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You See The Lord’s Great Love For His Beloved, and #2 You See The Lord Going To Great Lengths For His Beloved.

#1 – You See The Lord’s Great Love For His Beloved (v18-22)

Isaiah wrote about events that would occur 150 years in his future. He was announcing a series of events we summarize as the ‘Babylonian Captivity.’ Babylon was not a world power, but would become one. King Nebuchadnezzar would invade Jerusalem on three separate occasions. The last one would involve the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and relocating Jews to Babylon. They would remain there for the next 70 years.

How is that in any way romantic? The Gentile nations of the OT believed that victory or defeat depended upon the strength of their gods:

• In chapter thirty-six when Jerusalem was threatened by the Assyrian army their spokesman said, “Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ” (v18-20).

• The LORD Himself addressed this in Deuteronomy. We read, “but I [the LORD] dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this’ ” (32:27).

God used Gentile nations to redirect His backslidden people. God dreaded that the nations would believe their gods were stronger than He. Only because it would undermine the Gospel and hinder Gentiles from being saved.

Babylon defeating Judah would be interpreted as Marduk defeating Jehovah.

The LORD told the Jews ahead of time that He was going to raise-up Babylon as His tool. Even so, the Jews were surprised when it happened.

Love can inspire you to set aside all thoughts of what it’s going to look like if you sacrifice for it.

What did it look like when Jesus died on the Cross because “God so loved the world?” We don’t have to guess. “Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him” (Matthew 27:39-44).

Great love doesn’t think about itself.

Jesus “made Himself of no reputation” for you (Philippians 2:7). God the Son was willing to have His reputation ruined, on earth and among spiritual entities, to save you.

Do you ever wonder what the holy angels thought? The restraint & obedience necessary for them to witness the Cross is mind-bending.

Isa 42:18  “Hear, you deaf; And look, you blind, that you may see.

The Jews in Judah were spiritually blind & deaf. It was by choice. They chose to worship gods instead of God. Why do God’s people do that? Simply put, sin is pleasurable. It says so right in Hebrews 11:25. It goes on to say it is only pleasurable “for a season.” We are eternal beings, not seasonal!

The whole time of their backsliding the LORD was commanding them, “Hear, you deaf; And look, you blind, that you may see.” They could have if they would have.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying in Matthew 23:37, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

There are blind and deaf church goers in the New Testament. They attended the Church in Laodicea. They merited a letter from the Lord. He told them, “You are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked… Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (3:17-19).

Why argue whether they were saved or not? If you want to know, I think that they were mostly unsaved. I say that because even today there are churches whose member are mostly unsaved, but not all.  The point is that the Lord pursued them with “rebuke and discipline” for love’s sake.

Jesus told them that He was about to vomit on account of their lukewarmness. Nevertheless He was knocking on their door wanting to sup with them. Do you feel like eating when you feel like vomiting? The water the Laodiceans served would make Him sick, but He was intent on dining with them no matter.

BTW: According to the Biblical Archaeology Society,

The church at Laodicea… became the seat of a Christian bishop, and a Christian council was held there in the fourth century AD. Archaeologists have discovered about 20 ancient Christian chapels and churches at the site. The largest church at Laodicea took up an entire city block and dates to the beginning of the fourth century.

In a more recent excavation, they discovered a sign that said (in Greek), Parekklísi tou Golgothá. It translates to English as Calvary Chapel.

Isa 42:19  Who is blind but My servant, Or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect, And blind as the LORD’s servant?

In Isaiah God calls the Savior “My Servant,” He calls the believing remnant of Israel “My servant,” and He calls the nation as a whole “My servant.” In our verses, it is the nation He is addressing.

Israel’s calling was to be the messenger of God to the world. The word “perfect” relates to the message not the messenger.

Individually and collectively believers are to share the Gospel and thereby shine God’s light in the kingdom of darkness. The unsaved are blind by birth, dead in their sins. If we choose blindness by disobeying God, who will go to them with the light of the glory of God?

When a believer chooses sin it affects everyone you come into contact with. It hinders the work of the Gospel.

Isa 42:20  Seeing many things, but you do not observe; Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

Judah was at great advantage. God had given the Jews His Law to “observe.” As His chosen nation, their ears were opened by God. They chose not to hear it, mostly by going after the other gods.

Every letter Jesus wrote in the Revelation ends with, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Our ears were opened to hear & receive the Gospel. It is then up to us to listen to the things of God and not the things of the world.

We tend to disparage God’s Law. We are quick to argue, “We are not under Law, but grace.” Of course. But God said His Law is perfect. No man could keep it perfectly until the God-man did. But Israel & Judah were expected to live by it and share it as something beautiful and to be desired more than pure, fine gold.

Instead of sharing God’s Law with Gentiles, they attended orgies with them.

It would be like us never inviting unsaved individuals to church, but accompanying them to unseemly entertainments.

Isa 42:21  The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable.

The Law reveals God’s righteousness. If the Jews failed as His servants to participate, God must intervene to bring them back.

Isa 42:22  But this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in holes, And they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

They get a glimpse of life as besieged then conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Despite God’s efforts to reach them, there was no movement to repent and be “restored.”

The rise of Babylon and the sacking of Jerusalem should have come as no surprise:

• God had revealed it to an inquisitive Habakkuk. He was so shocked that he retreated to a watchtower to consider how and why God would use a nation more sinful than the Jews to discipline them.
• Jeremiah’s ministry was to tell the people to surrender to Babylon because it was God’s will.
• Hosea was a contemporary of Isaiah. At God’s leading he married an unfaithful woman, then took her back. It was a painful but precious object lesson for unfaithful Jews.

There is a love song I like from the greatest era of music, the 1970s. It opens,

If the sun refused to shine,

I would still be loving you

When mountains tumble to the sea,

There will still be you and me

Listen to God’s words to Noah as he exited the Ark to give humanity its new start:

As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter,

Day and night will never cease

The world of men had been one Nephilim shy of universal debauchery. God refused to abandon His love for mankind. The cycles and seasons He established in the Garden of Eden would go on, and the LORD would “still be loving you.”

#2 – You See The Lord Going To Great Lengths For His Beloved (v23-25)

The moment Judah began to drift, God would call them back:

• In the Law God told them He would withhold blessings and replace them with buffetings. By this they could understand they were not in God’s will.
• He sent prophets to plead with the Jews. They mostly killed them.
• He would ultimately send powerful nations to make them servants when they ought to be servants in their Father’s house.

It is that last one that is so bothersome. It seems so extreme. If, however, you are dealing with a nation, it makes sense you’d do so in the context of other nations. Severe? Yes. Necessary? Yes.

Their trajectory toward self-destruction must be stopped in order for God’s love to break through by the coming of Jesus. No Jews, no Jesus.

Isa 42:23  Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

Isa 42:24  Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, Nor were they obedient to His law.

Today we have an overused expression. We say that someone “owns” doing something. In the case of Babylon, God “owned” what He was going to do. He told Habakkuk, “For indeed I am raising up the [Babylonians] A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs” (1:6).

Did your dad or mom ever say to you, “This is going to hurt me worse than it hurt you?” It sure didn’t seem so at the time! After you become a parent you understand. You do things that may hurt at the time.

God will ‘hurt’ us if He must.

I’ve told you the story before about one of the times my brother Richard saved my life… [Story]. His intervention was extreme, but effective, and most certainly loving.

How far gone was Judah?

Isa 42:25  Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger And the strength of battle; It has set him on fire all around, Yet he did not know; And it burned him, Yet he did not take it to heart.

God describes Judah as a man surrounded by the flames of conquest, maybe  even on fire, but who didn’t know he was.

Picture a person on fire. You run to his aid, with an appropriate extinguisher. He stops you, saying he doesn’t want the chemicals to ruin his new shirt.

Would you comply? Hope not!

God will go to the greatest lengths to save His beloved Jews. If invasion and decades of captivity seem severe, it wasn’t.

May 14, 1948. The headline should have been, They’re Back! It was the day Israel was recognized as a nation in her homeland.

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people.”

The document was scheduled to expire. The question over what to do with the tumultuous country was turned over to the United Nations. They would eventually decide to create the ‘new’ country of Israel, specifically as a promised homeland for Jewish people.

The Bible-backstory is this. Jesus came in fulfillment of a slew of prophecies. He and His cousin, John the Baptist, announced it was time to establish the Kingdom of God. When Jesus came, God’s Kingdom had come.

The Jewish leaders refused to recognize Jesus as the Anointed One from the pages of their Scriptures. Their rejection led to His crucifixion on a Roman cross.

For some decades afterward, the offer of the Kingdom was still on the table. The Jews continued to reject it. It prompted the apostle Paul to officially  announce, “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when He said through Isaiah the prophet: “ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” (Acts 28:25-28).

Paul additionally said, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).

Circa 70AD the Romans were victorious in their siege against Jerusalem. It dispersed Jews all over the earth. They were despised and rejected wherever they went, and persecuted. The worst of it was Hitler’s “Final Solution,” the mass murder of the Jews we must never forget which we call The Holocaust.

The Old Testament book of Ezekiel details the return of the Jews. “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land” (37:21).

History bears witness of the mass return of Jews to Israel in the years following 1948. It is a miraculous fulfilled prophecy.   

The Bible also predicts the rise of anti-Semitism as well as the great instability of the city of Jerusalem. “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it” (Zechariah 12:2-3).

What is it going to take for Jews to recognize their Messiah? A seven-year time of trouble we most commonly call the Great Tribulation. We like to call it the name Jeremiah gave it – “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” It is the time God has set in order to win back His beloved nation.

It will work; all Israel will be saved.

God goes to the greatest lengths on account of His great love:

• If you are not a believer you are blind and deaf being held captive by the devil in a dark cell. When the Word of God is read & heard, God the Holy Spirit can open your blind eyes & desk ears. He invites you to see the Lord, Jesus Christ, on the Cross and then raised from the dead in resurrection. As the song says, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”

• We believers find a lot to apply. Remember that we are not Israel. These verses are about & for them. But to the extent they reveal God as the same yesterday, today & forever we carefully apply them to our walking with Jesus.

Salvation is inconceivable apart from Jesus.