Isaiah 44:24-45:7
Amen. Turn to Isaiah 44. We’ve
got a couple of verses in 44. I know this looks all choppy
and doesn’t make sense, but it really, really does. So 44, 24
through 28, and then the first seven verses of chapter 45. I
think I’ve got this right in my head. The method to the madness
in Isaiah is, Israel has two problems. They
have a geographical problem. They’re not in the promised land.
And why are they not in the promised land? Because they sinned. So
where are they? They’re in Babylon. How are they
and all their stuff going to get a thousand miles away back
to the promised land? Remember there’s all the vessels
of the temple, all the gold and treasure of the temple. There’s
no such thing as two men in a truck. It’s a thousand miles away. There’s
no Mayflower, you know, moving company. So how are they going
to get there? That’s their circumstantial problem, their temporal problem,
their geographical problem. And so we’re going to see tonight
that God is going to use Cyrus to take care of that. And then
the other problem they have is spiritual. They’re sinners and
they can’t take care of that. The priest can’t take care of
it. The blood of bulls and goats can’t take care of it. So we’re
going to begin to see the suffering servant is the one who will take
care of that. So we’re really marching towards
the bright, big fireworks of Isaiah. So let’s hear God’s word. Isaiah 44, starting at 24, and
then we’ll go through 45, seven. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb, speaking to Cyrus, I am the Lord
who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who
spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes
their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers. Who says of Jerusalem,
she shall be inhabited. And of the cities of Judah, they
shall be built and I will raise up their ruins. Who says to the
deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers. And who says of Cyrus,
he is my shepherd and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Saying
of Jerusalem, she shall be built and of the temple, your foundations
shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before
him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed. I will go before you and level
the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors
of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you
the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places.
that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel,
who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob
and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you,
though you do not know me. I am the Lord and there is no
other. Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you
do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the
Lord. There is no other. I form light
and create darkness. I make well-being and create
calamity. I am the Lord who does all these
things. Amen. The word of God. Now, if
you weren’t paying attention, you could have thought he was
speaking to Israel again. Isn’t this sounding much like
the language? that God used when he spoke to
Jacob, my servant, Israel, my servant whom I formed, I created
in the womb. But this whole time he was speaking
of Cyrus, the king of Persia. So I mentioned a little bit ago
that creeds and confessions, in the case of the one, contain
names. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, very good. But
you could have a creed and confession that says, we were returned from
exile by Cyrus, the king of Persia. That would be pretty neat. The
mystery of redemption and all its heavenly beings, all its
heavenly action, all its heavenly wisdom often has a nitty gritty
that has the dirt under the fingernails of human agents who bring about
the redemption of God’s people. And so this is a passage that
shows us God’s sovereignty, shows us God’s lordship over heaven
and earth, over kings and nations and people and circumstances.
Remember that God makes decrees in eternity past. His eternal
decree, we say, is God working out all things for his glory
and for our good. So when he works out his decree
in space and time, he works things out through creation, natural
law, um, mentioned, I think this morning, seed time and harvest
sun, moon stars. Uh, how do we get apples? The
seeds fall, they grow. How do we get babies? You know,
all the rest, it just works, right? So God works through creation. I always ask the test question,
is childbirth a miracle? And the answer is no, it’s just
not a natural thing. Now it’s pretty amazing that
it happens and all that, but it’s part of natural causes.
But God also executes his decrees or works out his decrees, not
just in creation, but also in providence. sees beforehand and
provides. And so God is at work in creation
and he uses people, he uses means to accomplish his ends. And so
Israel in exile is a long ways from home, a thousand miles or
so away. There’s a big river or two in
the way. And the question is, can God
move a nation? Can God move a nation from a
thousand miles away across big rivers with all their stuff,
with all their belongings, as well as the belongings of the
temple? And the answer is, of course he can. He’s done it before.
He brought Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness and
into the promised land. The other question, and we won’t
deal with it tonight, but it’ll come up with the servant passages,
is can God save a people from sin? Of course, we know the answer
to that or to both is yes and yes. So Israel has a geographical
problem. They need to go from Babylon
back to Judah, the allotment for the tribe of Judah. And they
need to get back to rebuild their cities surrounding Jerusalem.
They need to get back to rebuilding their homes in those cities,
as well as their homes in Judah, Jerusalem, the city. And that’s
what the story of Ezra and Nehemiah will bring about. So one of their
problems is geographical. Can God get them back? The answer
is yes. And then their other problem
is spiritual. Can God save sinners? And of
course the answer there. is yes. But in this passage,
we want to think about how God uses Cyrus, the king of Persia,
to accomplish his holy ends for the remnant of Judah and Jerusalem
who will return. Now, if you’re a Bible through
the year reader and you get into Chronicles, By the time you get
into the Chronicles, the end of second Chronicles, there’s
two paragraphs that are right beside each other, but there’s
a span of a whole lot in between. So at the end of second Chronicles,
Israel, the Northern 11 tribes, they’ve been hauled off for about
a hundred years. They’ve been hauled off by the
Assyrians. The Northern territory of Israel has been repatriated
with the people we’ll come to know as the Samaritans. in the
days of Jesus. But now Judah and Jerusalem have
been destroyed by Babylon and they’ve been hauled off to Babylon.
So Judah and Jerusalem are not in the promised land. And the
book of Chronicles ends by saying they got what they deserved,
temple destroyed, city destroyed, things burned. You got Jeremiah,
the weeping prophet, writing lamentations. So you got all
that going on. And then the verse ends and the
very next paragraph, which is the last paragraph, of the chronicler
says, God moved in Cyrus. God moved in his heart to return
Israel back to Jerusalem and Judah and to rebuild the temple.
And so this is part of a really big grand story in the scriptures. And when I think about the sovereignty
or the lordship of God over, I think I’ve got four, Four things
he’s sovereign over. I mean, he’s sovereign over a
million, billion things, but at least here. First of all,
he’s the Lord of heaven and earth. You catch in verse 24, and remember
he’s speaking to Cyrus. He’s telling Cyrus, this is me. This is, I am, this is Yahweh.
And he says in 24, I made all things. I stretched out the heavens.
I spread out the earth by myself. Now remember Cyrus, as we might
say, thinks he’s big bad and nationwide, right? I mean, he probably wears a leather
jacket. Uh, he probably uses hair products. You know, he probably
walks or, you know, struts around like the Fonz or something thinking
I’m Cyrus, king of the universe. Uh, people worship Cyrus. Uh,
Cyrus thinks much of himself and his people think much of
himself. And now he bumps into Yahweh.
I am the Lord. who made all things. I am the
Lord who stretched out the heavens. I am the Lord who spread out
the earth by myself. And so in the Lordship of heaven
and earth, you get a introduction that includes the past. Hey,
Cyrus, how did all this stuff come to be? It was me. It was
I am. Well, then his Lordship of heaven
and earth talks about the present. It says in 25, he frustrates. He makes fools. He turns wise. He makes their knowledge foolish.
He confirms the word of his servant. He fulfills the counsel of his
people. So present day, what is God saying? He’s saying, Hey,
Cyrus, I am, I am, and I’m in charge of people. I’m in charge
of what they say. I’m in charge of what they teach,
what they speak, what they divine. I’m in charge of the wise. I’m
in charge of the fool. And I can make one thing the
other and the other thing the other thing. And so in the present,
the lordship, the sovereignty of God, heaven and earth, he
rules, made all things, frustrates things. But in the future, this
is where the redemption comes. He says of Jerusalem, he says
of the cities of Jerusalem, he says to the deep, he says about
Jerusalem and the temple. She shall be inhabited. They
shall be built. I will raise up their ruins. Rivers will dry
up so you can get back home. Jerusalem shall be built. The
temple, the foundation shall be laid. And so past creator,
present. I deal with people and future.
I’m going to save my church. And so this is the lordship of
Yahweh. This is the sovereign Lord of
heaven and earth and people and realms and all the rest. It has
a past, a present, and a future component. But we also want to
think about how God is Lord of his church. You know, if you
read the news about 10 days ago, I think 70 Christians were killed.
I forget what nation that was in, but 70, 70 Christians killed. And it’s a horrible thing to
read about. My wife and youngest daughter
went with a school trip to DC this past week. And, you know,
they went to the museums, you know, the natural science, Smithsonian,
all the rest, but they made a tour through the Holocaust museum.
And these kids, Mandy said, about 18 of them had not really seen
and felt the weight of what took place. And so you say, how is
God the Lord of his people? How is God Lord of his church
if these things happen? Well, he’s the Lord of the church.
Nonetheless, he says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited. Remember,
Jerusalem right now is not inhabited at this point. It’s uninhabited.
It’s a wasteland. She shall be inhabited. They
shall be built the cities of Judah. I’ll raise up their ruins. Remember when Ezra first goes
back to Judah and Jerusalem, he says a thousand times of the
reproach of the name of God, the reproach and the ruins of
the city, the rubble and all the destruction needed to be fixed because the
name of God was at stake. And so, The city will be inhabited
again. The cities will be raised up
again. The temple and her foundations will be built. And God will dry
up rivers in order to get the people a thousand miles away
back home. And so God is the Lord of the
church. And when we think, you know,
the church is at an ebb and maybe a low and Oh, the American church
is just a bunch of coaxing jokes. The American church is sad, this,
that, and the other. We catch little glimpses, don’t
we, in our little outpost of heaven that God is good and gracious
and he is Lord of the church. He gives blessings. When Judah
and Jerusalem went back to rebuild, remember they laid the foundations
of the temple and the old men who were there before and saw
the grander temple, they wept and they wailed. And their cry
could be heard in the distance because the temple was not going
to be as big and grand, as beautiful as it was. And God says to them
through the prophet, do not despise the day of small things. And
he goes on to say, what really matters on this little foundation
of this little bitty temple is who’s going to come into it.
And that’s where Zechariah, the prophet, is so helpful. Haggai
the prophet is so helpful, reminding them that God in Christ will
inhabit and do a great ministry. And so God is the sovereign over
heaven and earth and history and hearts and all the rest.
He’s the lord of the church, but he’s also the sovereign over
kings. What do we say of God? What do
we say of Christ? He’s king of kings. He’s lord
of lords forever. And verse 28 says of Cyrus, he
is my shepherd or king. It’s kind of Davidic language,
isn’t it? And he shall fulfill my purpose. What’s God’s purpose?
It’s to get exiled Israelites out of Babylon and back to the
promised land. How’s he going to do it? Not through two men
in a truck, not through Mayflower, not through U-Haul. Uh, it’s
going to be through Cyrus, king of Persia. God is going to, uh,
how do we say it? Lay it on his heart. Uh, that’s
a great phrase in it. Uh, he’s gonna, he’s gonna move
in the life of Cyrus where Cyrus will issue a decree of Persia,
of Persia, great empire. And God’s purpose will be to
dry up the rivers, get the people back, uh, to the promised land. So he’s the Lord of heaven and
earth creation. He’s the Lord of the church. He’s the Lord
of Kings, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now, I was gonna say
turn to the back, but it’s the back of my page. Look at the
next chapter, chapter 45. This could be a standalone, but
I wanted to put these two together, because the momentum towards
this is so great. You get to verses one through
seven of chapter 45, and you say, God, you can’t be serious. You’re going to accomplish your
holy ends and the glory of your returning people to Jerusalem
through this guy. I mean, we don’t have time for
a Persian and Cyrus history lesson, but he’s a bad dude. He’s not
the kind of guy you’d bring home to mom. He’s not the kind of
guy you’d say, we’re going to let him bankroll the temple.
You know, sometimes we make a joke about, you know, would the church
take a tithe if somebody won the lottery? Hey, it spins the
same, right? Would somebody take a tithe off
of someone’s gambling earnings? And I say, God, God took a tithe
from the wicked king of Persia. And he put that to use. And you’re
reminded, aren’t you, of the verse that pops up several places
in the Old Testament, the wealth of the nations comes into the
house of God. Remember what Egypt gave to Israel
when they were fleeing for the Red Sea. They gave them all their
silver, all their gold. And where did all that silver
and gold go? It went into the making of the tabernacle. And
so you’re on good ground here, but you say you can’t be serious.
God, you’re giving Cyrus a great commission. And that commission
comes up in verse one, thus says the Lord to his anointed one. I thought that was David language,
but here, Cyrus is God’s anointed, his shepherd, a few verses back,
whose right hand I have grasped. He’s given him the right hand
of I don’t want to say Christian fellowship, but he’s given him,
he’s cut a deal with Cyrus. He’s greeted him and grasped
hands. Just the other day we saw, I believe it was the prime
minister of the UK come to America and there’s the ceremonial presidential
greeting. He comes out the door and as
the limousines are open, they get out, they shake hands. And
then we had the other guy come and There was a nice greeting,
but maybe not a very good exit. But the right hand is extended.
I come in peace. You’re welcome in peace. And
so Cyrus. whose right hand I have grasped.”
Well, what’s Cyrus going to do? Cyrus is going to take over where
the previous world dominant leader left off. So Nebuchadnezzar,
Babylon, they’ve kind of fallen by the wayside. And now Persia
is going to accomplish God’s plans and God’s going to help
him subdue nations. He’s going to help him loose
the belts of kings, or that’s a phrase for disarming kings.
And he’s going to open doors and gates so that he will have
success in all his world domination efforts. I don’t know if you
caught this, but to me, it sounds like in revelation, when Jesus
says, I open doors that no one can open and I shut doors that
no one closes. So we thought about, uh, Yahweh
being the Lord of heaven and earth, Yahweh being the Lord
of the church, Yahweh being the Lord over kings. Here specifically,
we’re seeing Yahweh as Lord over Cyrus in very specific ways to
help Israel with their geographical problem. And notice verses two
through seven, some of the things God says in verse two, I will
go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces
the doors of bronze. I’ll cut through the bars of
iron. I’ll give you the treasures of darkness. That’s things probably
buried in caves. I’ll give you the hordes in secret
places. And what’s the purpose of God giving Cyrus success? It’s so that you may know that
it is I, it is Yahweh, the God of Israel who call you by name.
You’re Cyrus, you’re my shepherd. You’re my anointed one, not Messiah,
but anointed one. And he does this so that Cyrus
will know I’m Yahweh, but also for the sake of Jacob and Israel,
my chosen, remember their problem. I got to get a thousand miles
back home and they need some money and they need some transportation
and they need a decree. They need safe passage through
this man’s empire. And so what does God say to the,
to the, to the sovereign one Cyrus as the greater sovereign
one? He says, I call you by name at
the end of verse four. I name you though you do not
know me. People stop and speculate. Did Cyrus, you know, have faith
in God? No, probably not. He had faith
in himself and thought, boy, isn’t it nice that the God of
heaven and earth has given me stuff and given me blessings.
He says, I name you though you do not know me. I am the Lord. There is no other. Besides me,
there’s no God. I equip you though you do not
know me. There’s repetition here. And it’s that people may know
from the rising of the sun from the West, there is none beside
me. I am the Lord. There is no other. So he’s the
sovereign Lord of Cyrus, sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, sovereign
Lord of the church, sovereign Lord of Kings. And then we get
to verse oh seven, and we get in really big trouble here because
it says, I form light and create darkness. Okay. We’re, we’re
okay with that. I make well-being and I create calamity. God creates
calamity. That means he’s not good, right?
This is the classic problem of evil. And then he says, I am
the Lord who does all these things. God is the Lord of heaven and
earth. He’s the Lord of the hearts of Kings. He’s the Lord of his
church. He’s the Lord of Cyrus, but he’s also the Lord of all that takes place. Now we
understand that God sinlessly, uses sin. We say in our confession
of faith that God permitted the fall. He permitted Satan to tempt
Adam and Eve. He permitted Adam and Eve by
their free will to either choose the good or to choose the evil
and they chose the evil. And so they and we get the consequences. God is not the author of sin.
God is not the creator of evil. He permits it, though, for His
glory. And so what is the great glory
that comes from permitting evil? He gets to send His Son, the
Savior. to make all things new. And so
when he says, I form light, I create darkness. These are the extremes.
These are the polar opposites. I make wellbeing or peace, Shalom,
and I make calamity. It’s not that he’s the author
of evil. It’s he can pull back. As we mentioned this morning,
his restraining power and all hell can break loose. You know,
we think of the Israelites in the wilderness, their shoes didn’t
wear out. Not only did their sandals not wear out, their clothes
weren’t moth-eaten. They had daily bread. They had
water to drink. And so God in the wilderness
created well-being, but when he needed to, he created calamity.
So they would understand that it is in him they live, move,
and have their being. I am the Lord. God says to Cyrus,
says to us, I do all these things. Well, Wonder of Wonders, the
work of redemption, is brought about here by Cyrus, the pagan. And they will return, the people
of Judah, to Jerusalem and Judah. They will have success. They’ll
have some losses and crosses and some hardships as well. But
they will rebuild the temple in the city and worship. And
all of that is to pave way in history for a greater king, a
greater David, And you fast forward through those silent years of
the scriptures, through the four or five hundred years, the intertestamental
times, and there are other kings that God exercises his lordship
over. In the days of Caesar Augustus,
a decree went out that everyone should return to their place
of birth and be counted. And that’s how Jesus is born
in Bethlehem, as was prophesied. And so we live life thinking
we see all things, but the unseen hand of God is at work in mighty,
mighty ways. And we can’t begin to read his
providence. We can’t begin to understand
what he’s up to. We do have the privilege of looking
back and giving him praise for being the Lord and wise one. Let’s pause and give him thanks
now. Lord, it’s very comforting to know that everything we do,
everything we experience, every moment of life is under your
sovereign hand. We live and move and have being
in you. Not a hair can fall from our head without it being the
will of our Father. You feed the sparrows. You clothe
the lilies of the field. And so how much more do you care
for us? We think of Romans 8. We think
of Joseph’s word to his brothers. You take what was meant for evil
and you work good and we see that at the cross. And yes, Pontius
Pilate crucified you, but you were raised up by the power of
God almighty that we might be justified and we might be gathered
to you into your presence and we give you praise and thanks
in Jesus name. Amen.