Isaiah 41
Amen. Turn in your copy of the
scriptures to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 is an interesting passage
where God the king wants to raise his beef with Israel. I made
a covenant with you, told you if you do this, it’ll go well.
If you don’t do this, it won’t go well. You’ve broken the covenant. You’ve not kept up your end of
the bargain. And so he’s what we call a covenant prosecutor,
giving them his case, encouraging them to get right, get straight,
or receive judgment. Remember, as we have turned from
Isaiah 1 through 39, now to 40 to 66, things get more positive
and you’ll find a lot of positive promise and reason in here for
Israel or for Christians to keep faith in Almighty God. So let’s look to God’s word now. Isaiah chapter 41, beginning
at verse one. God says, listen to me in silence,
O coastlands. Let the peoples renew their strength
or their faith. Let them approach, then let them
speak. Let us together draw near for
judgment. Who stirred up one from the east,
whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him
so that he tramples kings underfoot. He makes them like dust with
his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. He pursues them
and passes on safely by paths his feet have not trod. Who has
performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he. The coastlands
have seen and are afraid. The ends of the earth tremble.
They have drawn near and come. Everyone helps his neighbor and
says to his brother, be strong. The craftsman strengthens the
goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer, him who strikes
the anvil, says of the soldering, it is good. And they strengthen
it with nails so that it cannot be moved. But you, O Israel,
my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham,
my friend, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called
from its farthest corners. saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast
you off. 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. Behold,
all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and
confounded. Those who strive against you
shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those
who contend with you, but you shall not find them. Those who
war against you shall be as nothing at all. 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. Fear not, you worm Jacob, you
men of Israel. I am the one who helps you, declares
the Lord. Your redeemer is the Holy One
of Israel. Behold, I make of you a threshing
sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth. You shall thresh the mountains
and crush them, You shall make the hills like chaff. You shall
winnow them and the wind shall carry them away and the tempest
shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the
Lord and the Holy one of Israel. You shall glory. When the poor
and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is
parched with thirst, I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God
of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare
heights and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will make
the wilderness a pool of water and the dry lands springs of
water. I will put in the wilderness
the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in
the desert, the Cyprus, the plain and the pine together that they
may see and know and may consider and understand together that
the hand of the Lord has done this. The Holy One of Israel
created it. Set forth your case, says the
Lord. Bring your proofs, says the God of the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen. Tell us
the former things. what they are, that we may consider
them, that we may know the outcome or declare to us things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods. Do good or do harm, that
we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing and your
work is less than nothing. An abomination is he who chooses
you. I stirred up one from the north
and he has come from the rising of the sun and he shall call
upon my name. He shall trample on rulers as
on mortar, as the potter treads clay, who declared it from the
beginning that we might know beforehand that we might say
he is right. There was none who declared it,
none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. I was the first
to say to Zion, behold, here they are. And I give to Jerusalem
a herald of good news. But when I look, there is no
one among these. There is no counselor. Who, when
I ask, gives an answer? Behold, they are all a delusion.
Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty
wind. Amen. The word of the living
God. Well, I’ve watched enough television
shows to know if someone approaches you and says, are you Brian Patrick
Kratz? Or if they knock at the door,
you look through the peephole. You got to avoid getting served,
right? Got to avoid the summons. And so if you say, I don’t know
who you’re speaking of, right? Look through the peephole and
no one’s home. But with Yahweh, when our great
God wants to serve you with notice that you are found wanting and
covenant with him, it’s impossible to escape our sovereign and powerful
God. I think the people of God thought
they could get away with their idolatry. They could get away
with their syncretism. They could get away with trusting
in other nations to get them out of their political fixes.
But our sovereign and powerful God lets nothing slip by him.
And so in covenant with him, he imposes on us stipulations. I am your God. You are my people.
Obey me and live. I am your God, you are my people,
disobey me and you will not live. He threatened to exile to Israel. He threatened that Babylon would
come and take them away. He threatened the same with Assyria
in the North. And so he imposes as a King,
he imposes his will and his ways on us. And we have no choice
but to obey or else we have no choice. but to obey for blessings
and disobey for curses. Remember the covenant promises? You live in the land obeying
God, you’ll get grapes and grandkids, but you disobey God, he makes
it a barren, fruitless place and you’ll get exiled. And so
this chapter, 41st chapter of Isaiah is one where we see the
royal treaty, the royal covenant, the covenant between Yahweh and
Israel. We see that it has been broken,
and so now he wants to have a conversation with them. And so in chapter
41, one, but also chapter 41, 21 through 24, we see a divine
summons. In verse one, he says, listen
to me in silence, O coastlands. Means he’s talking to everybody,
far reaches. Let the peoples renew their strength of their
faith. Let them approach and let them speak. Let us draw near
for judgment. Then you skip over to verse 21. Set forth your case, says the
Lord. And the issue has been, they’ve
been trusting in idols. So he says, haul them into court.
You know, get your hand carts and bring in your proofs. Bring
those idols in and let them tell us what is to happen. So in this
chapter, he’s going to prophesy the raising up of Cyrus of Persia
to snuff out Babylon, who previously snuffed out Assyria and that’s
who’s surrounding them at the time. So he’s prophesying a couple
kingdoms later and he taunts the idols there in 21, 22 and
23 and 24. Tell us what is to come hereafter
that we may know that you’re gods. And then he declares 24,
behold, you are nothing. Your work is less than nothing,
an abomination to he who chooses you. So he’s called the covenant
breakers into court. And generally what happens in
these situations, he says, you know, here’s the covenant. Remember,
I made it with you. You agreed to it. Remember all
those times in the old Testament, particularly like in Deuteronomy,
when they’re about the end of the promised land and Moses says
to the second generation, you know, here’s the law of God.
It’s the second reading of the law. It was first at Mount Sinai. All those folks have now died.
The wilderness generation is about to go in the promised land
and they say, Oh, everything you say, Moses, we are going
to do. And what does Moses say? Yay. Good. He says, nah, you’ll
break it. It’s going to be bad. You’ll
break it. And so here, God has summoned the covenant breakers
and he says, this is what you agreed to. This is how you’ve
broken it. Idolatry. Let’s get it right. Now, generally
what happens is Israel just calls on their gods and they think
those other gods can take care of Yahweh or they call Egypt
and say, Hey, God has sent the Assyrians to taunt us. Egypt
come and help. And what has God said over and
over in Isaiah, the Egyptians can’t help you. Nobody can help
you except me. And so the calls for help to
other gods or other nations is no good. So generally what happens
in a, like a political covenant breaking is that the King or
the tyrant says, you’ve quit paying your dues. And if you
don’t start paying your dues, we’re going to come plunder or
we’re going to wage war. And that’s what God says. There’s
a King in the East and he’s going to come in from the North. And
he’s speaking of Cyrus. He’s speaking of future enemies. In a sense, he’s saying, I’m
the God of history. I’m the God who raises up kings
and I take kings out. About a hundred years from now,
this whole Babylonian thing will pop up, maybe 75 years. Assyria will be no more, Babylon
no more. And so it’s going to be Persia.
And God is saying, look, I’m the God of history. I’m the God
who reigns. I give history, meaning I give
history its purpose. You interpret all of human history
through me. So God is sovereign. God is the God of glory. His
purposes will always stand. His covenant will never be broken. Think back to, I don’t know,
a couple of years ago, we were making our way through Acts and
in chapter 17, Paul goes on a second missionary journey. Remember,
he has it out with, oh, he takes Silas with him. Who’s he getting
a fuss with? Barnabas, yeah, he and Barnabas get into it.
So Barnabas goes his way with, is it John Mark? That’s who they
were fussing over. Paul goes off with Silas. They
make their way through, you know, the Galatian churches. They are
cruising through the little region that’s called Asia, not what
we consider Asia proper, but the little region called Asia.
God says, no, we don’t want you here just yet. He’ll come back
later to Ephesus and all. And then they’re cruising up
through the north and, They have the Macedonian dream where the
person says, come over here. And so Paul goes into Macedonia,
preaches at Philippi, shamefully treated, run out of town. He
secretly sneaks out in the night. He cruises through, well, he
ends up in Athens and Corinth, but he cruises through Berea. and also Thessalonica. So up
until Thanksgiving, we were making our way through Thessalonians.
And you remember what Paul says to the Thessalonians at the very
beginning of his letter, I thank God that you’ve turned from idols
to serve the living God. Well, here in Isaiah, they got
it backwards. They turned from the living God
to serve idols, just the opposite. And so he says, roll, roll those
things into court. you know, get your hand carts,
your movers, and bring those idols into court. Can you imagine
God saying to you, started naming your idols, bring your checkbook
into court, bring your date book into court, bring your pride
into court, bring your resume into court, bring your self-justification
into court, bring whatever it is, your fig leaves, if you’re
Adam and Eve. Bring it into court and let’s
see how it does. And just the saying of it makes
you tremble, doesn’t it? Just the saying of God calling
you to account makes you tremble at his threatenings. and makes
you embrace his promises in Christ. So Israel’s shaking in their
boots. The terror of the judge of the earth comes upon them. But he speaks in this chapter
to the remnant, to the faithful, to the believers. He speaks to
us who have faith in Christ and he calls them my servant, Israel. And if you zip back to verse
eight, He gives them a lot of comfort.
He says, but you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend, what sweet language that
is, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called
from its farthest corners. Remember when Abraham was called
out of Ur of the Chaldeans, that was about as far away in that
world as you could get from the promised land. Leave your idols,
leave your kith and kin, and come to the land I show you and
there I will give you this land, bless your offspring. So Abraham
was God’s friend that he took from the ends of the earth. And
he picks up in verse nine saying, you are my servant. I have chosen
you and you I have not cast off. And so 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. And so in the context of that
world and in the context of judgment against Israel, God is speaking
to the remnant. He’s speaking to his beloved
ones who keep faith. You were the least of nations
and I chose you. You’re not worthy, but I’ve made you so. And the
Christmas promises are right here, aren’t they? God promised
to Abraham, I will give you an offspring, not necessarily Isaac,
though he’s the start. But he really means Christ, doesn’t
he? I’ll give you an offspring. And that offspring, Paul says
in Galatians, singular, not plural offspring, but singular meaning
Christ. I’ll give you an offspring that’ll be a blessing to the
world. And these same promises were given to Eve in the curses
of chapter three of Genesis. These same promises given to
David on your throne will sit a king. forever. These are things that will keep
us from fearing not. You know, the world and the news
and everything says, Oh, we better do something or the world’s going
to end. We better do something or the world’s going to fall
apart. You know, you better get your, um, you know, you watch
certain news channels, you better get your thousand days of supply
of food. Um, you know, cause Armageddon
is going to happen. Hey, it didn’t happen November
5th, did it? Maybe it’ll be next time. But that stuff lasts 25
years, so you’re good. Probably outlive most of you.
But we think that way, don’t we? And really where our minds
should go is to God, his strong right hand, his mighty arm, his
wisdom, his providence, his grace. And so he allays their fears,
verse 10, fear not for I am with you. Isn’t that the covenant
promise? What does Jesus say to his disciples when he ascends
into heaven? Lo, I am with you. Always to
the end. How does the Bible end? Revelation
21 and 22. Now the dwelling place of God
is with men. I will be their God and they
will be my people. I’ll wipe away every tear. No
more pain, no more sorrow, no more suffering. The people of
God now dwell in the temple of God. And there is no building
for God as the temple. There is no sun for God and the
sun are the light. And so we have no reason to fear.
the world may fall apart. Verse 17 says, when the poor
and needy seek water, there is none, their tongue is parched.
I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers. And so all the covenant promises
of God come through the Redeemer. And who is the Redeemer? It’s
none other than the Holy One of Israel. And he speaks of a
garden. He speaks in verses 17 to 20,
speaks of rivers and fountains and valleys
and pools and springs. And he speaks of the wilderness
being almost overgrown with cedars and myrtles and acacia and olive. couple times and I know I probably
bring this up a little too much but a couple times on our Grand
Canyon trip we would hike out of the river through a valley
up up into some place and and all of a sudden there was a desert
oasis and one place we went was called the Front Porch and you
climbed up a little hill that looked like all those little
paths you know you see in the Afghan war where the soldiers
were just always in rocks and you meander your way and there’s
one point where there’s a about a 200 foot ravine behind you
and you have to scooch along the rocks. And you finally get
back into this little place and it’s called the front porch.
And it’s just this oasis of trees. I mean, it can’t be more than
like 50 square yards. Everything else around it is
rock. And there’s a little stream there with blue water and just
grows so wonderfully. And you see what God is doing
here in the middle of a dark, dead, dying, world that’s under
the judgment and curse of God. He makes these little garden
spots. And for us, sometimes it’s our homes, you know, where
Christ dwells. It’s our congregation. It’s our
church family. It’s our sanctuary. It’s our
fellowship. It’s maybe a walk out in the
quiet of nature. It’s, you know, these little
spots. where we have down payments on what the new heavens and the
new earth must be like, where God reminds us, I do good things
in the midst. He gives arcs for families that
need salvation. He gives the church to his people. And so in the midst of this prosecution,
where God is giving the justice that is due for his people. He reminds us that he’s good
and gracious and there is a bigger, more ultimate saving in. Now, in the context of this whole
covenant prosecution thing, we don’t often think of this, but
when Jesus came and he had John the baptizer as his forerunner,
open your hearts, make ready for the coming of the Lord, clean
up the highways, repent, the kingdom of heaven is hand. Jesus
is the son that they kill. Remember when Jesus tells the
parable, he says, the Lord planted a vineyard and he sent a servant
to collect payment. You know, the tenants of the
vineyard needed to pay up. You’ve been growing grapes on
my property. You’ve been pressing wine on my land and my vats have
produced an income and you’re not giving it. So he sends the
prophets, he sends Servant after servant, they kill them all and
then they run them off and then they say, oh, here’s the son,
here’s the heir, that’s Christ. And they put him to death as
well. And so the prosecution against unbelieving people who
killed the Lord of glory, can you imagine the terror of that?
But thanks be to God that we have found Favor in God’s sight
have been granted faith and we see the sign for who he is and
we rejoice in his great provision. Let’s pause and give thanks now.
Our Lord, we thank you for giving us oasis in the midst of desert. You give us blooms and blossoms
and springs in the midst of a world that is dark and dying. And we
thank you for the chance to think on these things tonight. Bless us with your grace. May
we rejoice in Christ our Savior. May we repent of our sins and
think of our own idolatry, our own syncretism, our own forgetfulness
or waywardness. Help us to think on you and to
love you more for you are our great God whose right hand has
saved us. Help us we pray in Christ’s mighty
and great name, amen. Our hymn is number 94, How Firm
a Foundation.