OT

Isaiah 26:1-15 Glory of God

Wow, this wireless mic is great. I’m free to move around now. I feel like an aerobics instructor. The wonders of modern technology.
I don’t feel that safe behind this podium so maybe I should move around.

Thank you for praying for our family. Baby Elijah and the mom are doing fine. I am doing fine, too. Ever since the baby was born, my joints are not as sore and I am starting to lose some weight. Strangely, when Jackie was pregnant, I started to feel similar symptoms – you know, typical stuff like bloating and soreness, but thank you I am doing better. That is true compassion – to enter into the pain of another, literally.

I have a simple question for us to discuss this morning – what is the desire of your heart? Not intellectually, I THINK the desire of my heart is blank, but what is really in your heart of hearts? What do you want more than anything else in the world? If you could have anything you wanted, no limitations, no strings attached, what would it be?

That’s what I want to talk about this morning.

And there are a couple of related questions — 1) as Christians, what ought to be the desire of our hearts? And perhaps a better question is 2) as a people of God or a church, what ought to be the collective desire of our hearts?

The Bible describes salvation in Matthew 13 is a man who finds a treasure hidden in a field and in JOY he sells everything to buy that field and get to that treasure. That treasure is so valuable. Nothing can compare to it. He will do anything to get his hands on this treasure. And what is this treasure? To have God in my life.

Luke 19 describes a short man named Zacchaeus who has a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and his response was “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Becoming a Christian and entering into the kingdom of God is not a casual thing. To be a Christian and part of His church is not like joining a social club. Having God is not like having a new hobby and going to a club once a week to talk about common interests. It’s not even about just having a group of like-minded people with a similar belief system.

There is a sense in these two accounts that salvation is much more. There is a reckless abandon because as Christian we confess, God, you are the most important thing in my life. Everything else I have is rubbish.

There is no room for calculation – well, God is good but you know I have a pretty good life without him and I am not sure if I can surrender the things I hold dear in my heart. That kind of weighing of options diminishes God. It reduces God to something so small and manageable. Someone we can fit into our back pocket and pull out in times of emergency like a triple AAA card.

God is not like that. It’s black and white. It’s all or nothing. You have God in your life and you may have nothing else going for you, but you still have everything. And if you don’t have God and you have everything else, you still have nothing. And we give away everything else in joy, why? Because God is so glorious, so majestic, so worthy of honor and praise and worship and nothing can come close to competing for our attention.

So what should a Christian desire more than anything else? What I learned as a teenager at my hometown Presbyterian church still holds true. I learned that the chief aim of humankind is to glorify God. That ought to be the desire of our hearts. Not ourselves, not even our church. But God’s name needs to be lifted up and God is to be exalted high above every other name. It is no accident that when Jesus returns and the world as we know it ends and a new heaven and a new earth emerges, the primary activity will be people of every tribe and nation and tongue gathered around the throne of God singing praises to his name.

It is this kind of kingdom where God is at the center receiving all the glory that we are called to model to the world – to be a people who give God proper glory through our lives.

This is precisely the message of Isaiah to the people of God.

Let’s read Isaiah 26:1-15. I’ll read the odd verses and please follow with the even verses.

The word “glory” appears 37 times – 20 in ch 1-39 and 15 in ch 40-66, 5 of which are in ch 66 (final chapter). So glory is one of the most important themes in the book of Isaiah.

The book of Isaiah also highlights the sovereignty of God, that he is the primary actor in world history by demonstrating his involvement not only with His people but in the lives of all the other nations and rulers. And because God’s people are not living up to their calling and mission to be a servant who accurately reflects the character of God to the rest of the nations, He uses these other pagan nations like Assyria, Babylon and Persia to punish Judah. To teach them a lesson, to free them from their idols and for them to reclaim their standing as servants of the Lord.
We will see through Isaiah that God uses judgment as a tool to train his people to give glory to him.

In the first 39 chapters, God uses the nation of Assyria as his chosen tool of judgment to correct his people. The people of God were scattered and were forced to live as captives in Assyria. Things were bad. But starting from chapter 40, there is a prophesy that things are going to get even worse — Isaiah warns that 100 years later, there will be a second judgment. The first tool of judgment in God’s hand to chip away at Judah was Assyria, and now the next tool of judgment is Babylon. Not only will Babylon overthrow Assyria, they will also utterly destroy Jerusalem in 586 BC. And the destruction of the temple, the symbol of God’s abiding presence, announces the beginning of the period known as the Babylonian captivity or the great Exile. So ch 40-55 are about the promise of restoration.

Things are looking up. But it’s an odd kind of deliverance. God doesn’t use a godly man like Moses from his own flock to deliver his people out of bondage in Egypt. This time, he uses a man named Cyrus from the pagan nation of Persia to deliver Judah from Babylonian hands.
Persia had a different foreign policy. Unlike Assyria and Babylon who deported the leaders of the nation they conquered because dispersing leaders meant less chance for revolt, Persia believed in maintaining friendly relationships with their captive nations. This made good sense – if your captives like you, then there is less chance for rebellion. Two different strategies with the same goal.

So when Cyrus the Persian king was in power, he issued an Edict which allowed anyone from Judah who was living in exile in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. And to really gain the favor of Judah, he even contributed Persian imperial funds to help in the rebuilding of the Jewish temple.
It’s amazing to me that all of this prophesy came true over a hundred years after Isaiah first spoke out against Judah. Imagine if you are part of God’s people during Isaiah’s day and you are under Assyrian rule. And rather than relief, the prophesy says that your judgment is not ending any time soon. Rather, things are going to get worse under Babylon. And after that, Persia will rule over you, but then you read this strange prophesy about a deliverance by a man named Cyrus. And this man ends up being the king of Persia, and in a strange reversal, through this king, the exiles are allowed to return to Jerusalem. Because that was the Persian way of dealing with conquered nations.

It is simply unbelievable. And reading this 100 years prior would not bring me much comfort.
On the other hand, imagine that 100 years have passed and from the perspective of king Cyrus living, you are a Persian king and you have just overthrown Nebucchadnezzar and Judah is thrown in as part of the spoils of war. And during his interactions with these former exiles, you begin to hear about this prophesy that has your name in it. And the prophesy was spoken 100 years ago and yet it happens exactly the way it was recorded in the ancient manuscript.

Did you ever think about that? It is amazing.

God is indeed sovereign, He alone is worthy of all our praise.

This is precisely the lesson God is trying to teach Judah. God is glorious and as my servant and my witness, now go out and show the world just how glorious I am.

And if you don’t believe me and you still stubbornly cling to your idols, wait until Cyrus comes onto the scene and you see God’s word fulfilled in history. Then you will give me glory.

Let’s read Isaiah 26:8.
v8 – From the Hebrew, the translation goes like this – In the way of judgment (act of deciding a case), O Yahweh, we wait for you, your name and your remembrance (memory) are the soul’s desire.

It’s like a court scene. God is both prosecutor and judge. The sense is that God is not pleased with his people. Therefore, he has put them under judgment by these pagan nations and he is in the midst of deciding which way to rule the case – deliverance or more judgment. And during the deliberation process, God’s people answer, O Yahweh, we wait for you, your name and your remembrance, your memory are the soul’s desire.

When God heard that, he must have been so thrilled. They finally get it!! Yes, that’s exactly what I have been trying to teach them.
Why does God have to use such harsh means, I mean, back to back to back judgment by 3 pagan nations and then Malachi and another 400 years of silence. That is a lot of judgment!

Verse 9 and 10 give us a clue. Grace is shown to the wicked but they do not learn righteousness. But in judgment, the people of the world learn righteousness.

If you have young kids, you don’t need any more elaboration on these verses. Showing grace or speaking gently when kids misbehave does not work that well. You have to raise your voice. And if your name is Jeremiah, this doesn’t work that well either. You have to start taking away things. Like yesterday, I bought him some goggles and now he wears it all the time – it’s just like when we first bought him a bike helmet, he wore it everywhere – at home, at the groceries, even to church. I start with gentle words, Jeremiah, you shouldn’t do that.
And if that doesn’t work, then it’s raising my voice – Jeremiah, stop doing that!

And if that doesn’t work, then it’s taking away things – Jeremiah, give me your goggles and helmet and I am going to return them to the store or give them away.

This is the only way kids learn. And to God, we must be like the most rebellious, spoiled children. It’s because we are sinners that God is forced into exercising his judgment for our own good.

God uses harsh means with Judah, but God is finally getting the answer he is looking for – Lord, your name and your remembrance, your memory are the soul’s desire.

Verses 13 and 14 follow this theme.
v13 – your name do we honor, your name we remember – so again honor and remembering God’s name are connected.
v14 – wipe out all memory of other lords that have ruled over God’s people – the word for “memory” referring to the wiping out of all the memory of other kings and other nations is the same word used in v8 for God’s memory being the desire of our hearts.
Putting it altogether, what ought to be our heart’s desire? It’s about God’s name, his character being exalted and honored and this name can never be forgotten. It is to be proclaimed, remembered, celebrated. For what purpose? So that the unbelieving nations will see us giving glory to God and eventually join in the worship of God.

In comparison, every other memory is wiped out because the memory of God overshadows all.
In other words, our heart’s desire is to glorify God, to give him all the glory and to make his name famous to all nations, for all time. That’s it. This is what it means to be a Christian. When we first became Christian, wasn’t that our confession? God, you are the greatest thing that happened to me. I lay down all my idols, Lord, be glorified through my life, I am your servant, I give my life to you. Lord, I want the whole world to know you.

Isaiah 43:7 reads everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
It says we were created, formed and made, for what purpose? For my glory. For God’s glory. To give glory to God is in our DNA, we’re wired for glory.

Living for the glory of something or someone is a foreign concept to many of us.

Alexander the Great knew glory. This Greek king conquered much of the known world in the 4th century.
Or if you were one of the many emperors of Rome during its 2,500 year history, then you know glory. The glory of Rome.
Samurais knew glory. They lived for the glory of their master and if they dishonored him, their only option was to commit hara kiri with a sword and the less pain they expressed during their self-execution, the more honorable their death.

But what about us? American history is a little more than 200 years. The closest thing we have is movies about Glory, like Glory with Denzel Washington about the Civil War. And what is being honored during wartime. The bravery and courage of soldiers who die in battle. Or freedom, or democracy. Some say, this is glory as defined by our nation. I don’t want to get into war or passivism but clearly WWII and Vietnam War and even most recently the Iraq War I believe have caused us to pause and question if war or the ideals that cause us to go to war are that glorious.

So if it’s not the glory of America, or war, or freedom or democracy, then what do we have left?
I believe we who live in America are struggling because we have not found anything glorious to motivate us, or to live for.
On top of that, factor in America’s quick rise to power and the subsequent wealth that followed.
Why do any of our youth need to strive for something more glorious? Living for something glorious is a hard life. You can’t sit in your lazy boy and expect to be a Caesar Augustus. We no longer have to be the best because even if you are at the bottom of your class, you can still live in relative comfort.

The American dream is really a small thing if you think about it. It is having a nice home to call your own and living in relative comfort. It is a nice goal but it is certainly a far cry from glory.

What is the desire of your hearts?

I had to think about this for my life and what I thought many of us would say.

What would many of our perfect lives look like? We’re Christian so we know it is not good to be too materialistic. So we would say we don’t need a lot of money. But we would want to have enough money that we wouldn’t have to worry about money and providing for our children.
What about our careers? We don’t want to be a CEO. That takes too much work. I want to have flexibility but I don’t want to work at Starbucks because they pay too little so that wouldn’t work. And so we imagine having this fictional job where we have no boss, maybe we are like a board member and we just have to show up to work for a few hours a week whenever we feel like it. None of us would want to be jobless because that would be boring to stay home all the time. And babysitting, who wants to watch kids all day.
In my perfect dream scenario, I want my job to be meaningful, it has to make an impact on other people and allow me to be well paid and have a flexible schedule. And be a boss without all the demands and responsibility.

Isn’t this the desire of our hearts? Let’s be honest with ourselves.

It’s a paltry self-glory disguised as comfort and self-sufficiency. And just like in Isaiah’s day, people fashioned idols, we have fashioned a fictional world where we are at the center and everything comes to us easily and we don’t have to work too hard. And we have enough time to give God whatever is left over at the end of the day.

If this is your heart’s desire, this dream would end up being a nightmare from God’s perspective. May it not end like this.
In Isaiah’s day and for centuries, God’s name was being dishonored. Pagan rulers mocked were the name of God and lifted up their idols and taunting the exiles, where is your God? Is he not mighty to save? Where is your God?

Isaiah’s day and our modern situation are no different. Today, God’s name is mocked. Mentioning the name of God is taboo in most social settings.

God’s name is at stake, his honor. And for this reason, God will not allow his mockers to get the last word.
That is why God will always accomplish his mission. He did deliver His people from pagan hands, though it took centuries. He will achieve his goal of making a small remnant of true servants who can wholeheartedly give glory to God.
And of course, God’s ultimately silenced all mockers by sending Jesus Christ, the True Servant, whose heart’s desire and actions testified in every way to the unfailing glory of God.

I want to close with a quote from C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Weight of Glory”:
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us… We are far too easily pleased.”

What is the desire of your heart?

Let’s not settle for too little. Let’s not allow ourselves to be too easily pleased.

Jeremiah is perfectly content putting his goggles on and swimming in the bathtub. Daddy, look at me, and he splashes around and he doesn’t move an inch.

I want him to experience swimming in a pool and eventually in the ocean.

Infinite joy awaits us, His weight of glory, his weighty presence around us, in our midst, and within us as we learn to give God the proper glory that He deserves.

PART FOUR: Ch 56-66

SUMMARY LINE: A trusting, redeemed servant Israel becomes the messenger with clean lips through whom the world can find its Savior.

• Week 1: Ch 1-12 – Calling of Isaiah – to be a servant for Israel, a people of unclean lips – fiery coal
• Week 2: Ch 13-39 – Same calling applies to Israel – to be a servant for the nations – instead of fiery coal, God uses pagan nations as his tool of judgment
• Week 3: Ch 40-55 – Forget the former things – instead of deliverer from God’s flock, God uses Cyrus, the king of Persia to deliver his people; Messiah is promised who will provide spiritual deliverance
• Week 4: Even with physical deliverance, people of God could not sustain righteousness and justice – same situation after we are saved and spiritually delivered, we cannot sustain a life of faith on our own strength. That is why we need the HS, but there is a catch – God will only give the HS to those who will use it properly.

Whole book is an outworking of ch 6 – man of unclean lips – this man receives the fiery cleansing of God and moves out in trusting obedience to God and through him the people of Israel get to hear the message of the Holy One of Israel.

In the same way, when the people of unclean lips receive the vision of God and our placed under judgment via pagan nations (ch 7-39) and they receive the gracious forgiveness and deliverance of God (ch 40-55) and are enabled to live as God lives (ch 56-66), then the nations come to know the Holy One of Israel.

• Ch 7-39 – call to live righteously in obedience with the threat of destruction if they fail
• Ch 40-55 – grace – all you do is receive it

Age old question – how can you reconcile righteous/right living or obedient living (“works”) with grace? Are these two reconcilable?

Ch 56-66 – marks of the servants of the Lord

• 56:1-8 – foreign worshipers
• 56:9-59:15 – ethical righteousness
• 59:15-21 – Divine Warrior
• 60-62 eschatological hope
• 63:1-6 – Divine Warrior
• 63:7-66:17 – ethical righteousness
• 66:18-24 – foreign worshipers

Reversal
Ch 56-59 – begins with foreign converts and ends with Divine Warrior; interlude – ch 60-62 about eschatological hope; this final section (ch 63:1-6) begins with Divine Warror and ends with treatment of foreign converts (66:18-24).

So in both ethical righteousness sections, the thrust is the inability of the people to produce the ethical righteousness called for. What is the signification of the reversed ordering?

Significance of reversed ordering – If it ended with ch 62, then we have the eschatological vision with its glowing promises and we may be tempted to look past the present and wait for heaven or the Second Coming of Christ. But there are 4 more chapters tacked on. It appears that the eschatological hope is important but it ought not to obscure the call to live according to the ethical demands of the present. So we have a future to hope in, but there are still 4 chapters to live out in the present.

There’s more.

An important theme throughout is human inability to live out our calling. That is why there are two references to the Divine Warrior. In the first section, human inability comes first, then the Divine Warrior so the accent is on human inability. However, in the second section, the Divine Warrior comes before human inability. There is a change of emphasis – God is able to overcome human inability – there is no enemy, including sin, that can defeat God.

Key – God empowers us through the HS to live righteously, as servants

Context: encroachment of Canaanite religion. Canaan is modern day Israel and Syria. Polytheistic.

• Baal-Hammon – god of fertility and renewer of all energies
• Dagon – god of crop fertility and grain
• Kotharat – goddess of marriage and pregnancy
• Mikkal-wa-ib – goddess of orchards and fruit
• Molech – god to whom children were sacrificed by fire

Those in power were looking for political legitimacy so that they could maintain their power. Peasants were more interested in the fertility gods because they promised abundant crops, flocks and humans.

Also recognized gods of Baal and Asherah and a host of others.

One of their most detestable practices was child sacrifice – evidence of the graves of many children in various religious sites in N Africa such as Carthage.

Apparently, this polytheistic tendency had infiltrated God’s people. And the result is a fading of justice and righteousness. Polytheism – loss of standard – everything is permissible – justice and righteousness go out the window – people suffer.

• 56:1 – Keep justice and do righteousness – moral and social implications
• 56:3-8 – fundamental criterion for being among the servants of the Lord is doing justice and righteousness

There’s a problem. What if God delivers his people from Babylon and Persia and they are restored to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple? What next? They will fall short of their calling again.

Religious people who were doing all of the external rituals and practices and who are being tempted by their cultural context of polytheism and idolatry. The result – there was nothing which could sustain their righteous living.

I call this outside-in faith. Motivated by activities, attend all the prayer mtgs and small groups, yet there is no change at the core.

Isaiah is espousing an inside-out faith – at the core, there is a shift, a knowlege of God that is deeply personal and from that core there is overflow that shows up in behavior. Behavior as an expression of a relationship with God.

So the people of God in Isaiah’s day and for centuries afterward were people focused on the exterior – what I call an outside-in faith. They were religious on the surface, but in their hearts they were characterized by 56:11.

56:11 – problem with leaders is unbridled desire – the people have wide-open (HEBREW) throats that cannot be filled.

Gratification of desire – their goal. Putting his own way before God’s way or his people’s way. Laziness, greed and self-concern have sapped the vitality of the shepherd.

56:12 – drinking in excess – appetite out of control.

Desire does not know satiation.

Rolling Stones – I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Desires drive us on and on, with rising expenditures of time, money and energy and with diminishing returns. Ends in slavery.

Reflection: how do you know if you have an outside-in faith? What are some signs?

57:1-2 – disappearance of the righteous – God in his mercy is removing them – signal that the critical stage has arrived – judgment.

We sometimes think, God, send me to the darkest place so I can shine your gospel. LA might be one on that list. Maybe that is why God sent us here. But interestingly, God wants to spare righteous people from situations that would surely corrupt them. So if you are in a city and there are few righteous people around, watch out! Maybe you have become part of the unrighteous and you don’t even realize it (just kidding).

The religious people described in this passage thought they were righteous, but in reality, they were involved in cultic behavior including a “collection” of all the worst features of paganism (ch 57):

• fertility/bed/temple prostitution, ritual prostitution was a part of worship (57:5, 7-8)
• child sacrifice, idol of sex and practice of sacrificing the next generation in order to gratify the present (57:5)
• animism – wadis – dry gullies – view of paganism – continuity – creation is God – goes against chosing God as our inheritance and instead settling for physical inheritance (57:6)
• ceaseless demands – addiction – insatiable thirst (57:9-10)

Canaanite religion
57:5 – two aspects of Canaanite religion – fertility worship and child sacrifice

What is the result?
57:17 – greed – desire to have more of everything at all costs. Idolatry seeks to satisfy these desires. You see something – I want that, I need that. The line between needs and wants is blurred – enslaved by desires.

Reflection: Is our society today any different? Any parallels? Do you see similarities in your approach to Christian life?

Covetousness is the last of the 10 Commandments – to break this (you shall not covet) is to break the first (thou shalt have no other gods before me)

There is some good news, or bad news, depending on your perspective in 57:15.

Read 57:15 – biblical theology makes 3 pts:

1. God is transcendent – high and lofty One, living in a high and holy place
2. God dwells with the crushed and low-spirited – contrite and lowly in spirit
3. God enlivens the spirit of the lowly – REVIVE the heart of the CONTRITE

If you are feeling spiritually poor and lowly, then there is hope for God to revive us.

58:2 – Who are the rebels and sinners? Scary thing is that it is those who seek God every day. Key word is “seem” – they seem eager to know my ways, they seem eager for God to come near.

We can deceive one another but God is not deceived.

Why does God not consider their seeking something pleasing?

He sees their heart and the motivations for their actions.

58:3-4 – there is fasting but it is with the attitude of “See, God, look at us.”

What if you bring this mentality into the Christian life? Religion of works in which the worshiper by his or her performances tries to manipulate the world in order to secure its blessings

Manipulating God into action. I do this for you, now give me what I want. Engaging in acts to show how religious we are or trying to use it as device for making God do our will

And the clearest demonstration that their hearts are not right is the fact that in the midst of their fasting, they are lacking justice and righteous in their behavior. Exploiting of workers, quarreling and strife, striking each other with fists.

58:6-7, 9-10 – They failed to see connection between their mistreatment of poor/lowly and their religion.

This is precisely the attitude that God wants to address.

God does not care about the practice of fasting if this ritual is to be offered in place of changed attitudes and behavior, then God does not want fasting at all.

Key is doing what pleases God and God is pleased when there is just treatment of others.

Our worship and love for God needs to be so deep that it overflows in our treatment of others, esp those weaker than we.

If they want to deprive themselves, let them do it for the sake of the oppressed, the needy, and the helpless, not for the sake of their own relgiousity.

One major theme in Isaiah is to be the servant who properly reflects the character of God. And what is this character?

One description of God is that He is a God who gives himself away to those who can never repay him. There is no clearer evidence of the presence of God in a person’s life than a replication of that same behavior.

No wonder Mother Teresa was such a godly saint. She loved the lepers who were abandoned and forgotten. There was nothing in it for her.

What about us? With what motivation do we love others?

The call is to love those who can never repay us. Those who are suffering injustice. Or maybe, loving those who could repay us but we love with no strings attached so there is no sense of obligation. Don’t we love by saying – we’ll love but that guy better be thankful or I am through with him… We expect some kind of thanks, or at least some kind of recognition from God.

Out of all the spiritual practices, why is fasting chosen?

Any idea? Because fasting captures the essence of being a servant. You practice self-denial in the sense of not fasting for your own sense of righteousness. But you fast and practice self-denial for a purpose and that is to serve others and not to serve yourself.

Why go through all this judgment and training and discipline if it is just about us getting our act together and cleaned up before we get into heaven. It’s like a soldier who goes through boot camp and then the sergeant said, Now that you are trained and ready to defend our country, I want you to files these papers for the next 10 years. You would think, why did I go through all the sleepless nights and terrible food and rigorous endurance training?

Our self-denial has a purpose. It is for the benefit of others. What good is it to deny yourself food when those around you are hungry and you don’t even notice (58:10)? What end is it serving? Instead of fasting, why don’t you just feed the guy next to you – isn’t that more pleasing to God?

58:9-10 – malicious talk – oppression of the poor and the weak will not stop ultimately until they are no longer seen as objects of scorn and contempt or as victims who require our pity. They must be seen as persons of worth and dignity, under God.

We show our devotion to God by alleviating hunger in others

Fasting was called “affliction of the soul” – “bread” instead of “soul” – worshiper was pouring out his or her soul to God in an act of self-denial – God would rather that we pour out our souls in ministry to those whose souls are really “afflicted” (meaning they have no food) rather than engaging in an ecstasy of self-congratulation over how severe we are on ourselves out of our supposed love of God.

The question from God’s perspective, why should God manifest himself to people who would not use it to benefit the weaker ones?

58:10-12 – Knowledge of the Lord translates to proper treatment of the powerless – these people who are ready to live out this calling will never lack for the water of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They will be a fountain – enough waster for their own lives and more than enough to pour out on the afflicted souls around them.

Holy Spirit is given not for a spiritual high or so that we can feel close to God. It is given for empowerment to live out righteous living as shown through our care for the powerless around us.

Reflection: What do people think about this? Do you guys feel God’s presence? If not, do you think this is one possible explanation?

God feels distant or there is no power in our lives because we lack the Holy Spirit – and perhaps we have not received the HS because our motivation is not to help others.

Another, more obvious reason for God feeling distant is given in the final chapters of Isaiah.

Sin. Gratification of desires has become the most important thing.

59:7-8 – perverse society has no restraints – self-interest is king

God as a Mighty Warrior – 59:15-21 – Divine Warrior – enemy is no longer a pagan nation, but Sin.

People of unclean lips will be cleansed so that they may speak the Word of God to the world.

• 59:21 – deliverance into a life empowered by the Spirit of God
• 62:4-5 – incredible transformation from Ch 1 to ch 62 (end times) – shift from the name “Desolate” can become “Married”
• 63:10 – grieving of the Holy Spirit – sin is a matter of the will – until that sinful will has been brought into submission to the HS (no more rebelling), consistent holy behavior is not possible. It’s our choice.

Is that how you view sin? A willful choice? Some say I couldn’t help it. It’s because of my upbringing, whatever.

We do this on a microscale all the time. You hear a message and God give you an impression — I need to reconcile with that person, I need to confess my sin, I need to love this person — but you fail to act. That choice sets a pattern. God tries everything to get our attention — judgment, difficulty — but we refuse to acknowledge him and God eventually says, okay, you have it your own way. Result – spiritual insensitivity and hardening of heart and eventual death.

That’s what is described in 64:5-6 – iniquities = wind – dead leaf is helpless before the wind, human spirit becomes captive to its sins – sins come to define us and determine the directions our lives take.

Worst situation – enslaved but having no desire to call upon the name of God

What if we are calling out to God, we are seeking God and he does not answer? Isn’t that many of our questions?

Why is God silent?

Ch 65 gives an answer to this question. 65:1 – we must choose God’s ways and thoughts because our ways and thoughts are not good – we want God on our terms – when he doesn’t respond we blame him for being unresponsive.

65:6 – we ask God, why aren’t you speaking – underlying this is an expectation of deliverance. Warning – if God does speak, he is going to pay back in full, it is going to be more judgment and this time perhaps it will be complete judgment.

It is mercy sometimes when God is silent.

65:15-24 – it is out of judgment that hope emerges – hope of a promise of a new heaven and a new earth, a new created order. Only hopeless one – one who persists in rebellion.

Closing Remarks: Why is God distant?

1. Wrong approach to Christian life – how can I do certain things and manipulate God to get what I want? Active Christians who even do things like fasting. For what purpose? To feel spiritual? To gain God’s favor? Why? So that I have a blessed life? No, fasting so I can be a blessing to those in need.
2. Related to this, the lack of Holy Spirit – stemming from a lack of real desire to be God’s servant, to be filled and empowered for the sake of others. Christian life is not about what we can gain. Many people are stuck on the benefits, Christian life is just tacked on, no change in destiny or direction of life.
3. Lastly, God is distant because of flagrant sin.

 

PART THREE: CH 40-55

• Ch 6-39 – tied to historic events- Assyrian rule
• Ch 40-66 – not tied to specific historic events
• Ch 40-55 speaking hope to a people who fear themselves cast off

Remember, Isaiah is speaking during the Assyrian captivity. Babylon is not even on the scene but eventually, Babylon will overthrow Assyria and then Persia will overthrow Babylon.

So Isaiah’s prophesy in this next section is addressing the sentiment for those who are exiled to Babylon and saying, trust God, restoration/deliverance will happen, even though it seems so improbable.

Why is this section so important?

2 deliverances leading to an inheritance – one physical, one spiritual
Physical deliverance through Cyrus leading to a physical inheritance

Spiritual deliverance through the Servant leading to a spiritual inheritance – God delivers us physically from all kinds of things – but his real goal is spiritual deliverance

Take home lesson: We think we know God but because He is God, he will always do things that shock us.

Overall Context
Two sub-divisions: ch 40-48, 49-55

Ch 40-48

• Focus on servant Israel
• Just as Assyria was a tool of judgment in the hands of a sovereign God, so Babylon will be his future tool of judgment
• Emerging feature is the people’s unbelief toward prophecies because they seem so fantastic, so impossible

Ch 49-55

• Focus on Servant Messiah
• Deliverance from Babylon is assured

And this Deliverance from Exile reveal that there is no one like God, he is the incomparable God, specifically regarding 3 things:

• He can explain the past because he is our Creator
• He can tell the future – He is Lord of history
• He can do a brand new thing – He is Redeemer, Creator, Lord

Read Isaiah 40. Ch 40 is a famous passage but I think it has been largely taken out of context. Ch 40 describes what we learn during a period of God’s judgment.

What do we learn during God’s judgment?

• God is a comforter
• All flesh is grass
• God is righteous and just and we fall painfully short
• 40:14 – God of righteousness – right way to do things – righteousness – right thing is God’s plan of redemption
• 40:27 – God is a god of justice – justice (mishpat)- occurs 43 times – it speaks to God’s right administration of all matters

Lesson 1: Cyrus
Last week – Cyrus, king of Persia – Defeated Babylon and issued Edict for exiles to return home – question was posed – Cyrus, was he a believer? There is no evidence to indicate this.

Read 41:2 – God has stirred up one from the east – again, this man is referred to as righteousness (sedeq) – not morally righteous – right moral action in all circumstances – victory of righteousness – victory of that which is right and just. Triumph of the right.

Cyrus is the deliverer because he is obedient to the right. So nothing yet to indicate that he is a believer.

What about 44:28 – “anointed” – is that title reserved for priests, prophets and kings of Israel?

God will use anything, even a pagan ruler, to accomplish his purposes.

I think we have a wrong notion that only God’s anointed believer can do his work. The whole premise of Isaiah is that God is using pagan nations to accomplish His will to judge Judah. In the same way, Cyrus is anointed in the sense that he has been chosen and empowered to carry out the purposes of God. So Cyrus is an anointed one, like a Messiah figure – he is God’s chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes will be accomplished – physical deliverance.

Read Isaiah 43:14-18. 43:18 is a pivotal verse. Forget the former things. Reference to their past deliverance. The Exodus experience – a godly Moses, the parting of the Red Sea, forget all of that.

Why? Because if you look for God to work in exactly the same way as before, you can miss him. Perfect example – Messiah – you expect a certain kind of powerful Messiah, then you will miss the Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 53.

43:19 – Isaiah reinforces this point – a new way, a new thing – God can turn wet to dry or dry to wet, for the sake of his chosen people.

God is Creator – he does not need to do things the same way twice, he can create a totally new exodus experience from Babylon. In fact he does, he uses Cyrus, a pagan king.

43:18 – the saving events of the past had become a straitjacked into which every act of God was forced; we assume God has to work with “His” instruments.

Read Isaiah 45

• 45:2-3 – Cyrus knows who had called him
• 45:5 – it does not matter whether Cyrus knew about the Lord beforehand or whetheer he acknowledges him now. God is sovereign
• 45:8 – righteousness describes the character of God’s dealings – most righteous thing to do is to deliver his people
• 45:9 – How shocking for them to hear that their deliverer would be a pagan who did not even know the Lord who is the pot to challenge the wisdom of the Potter

Reflection: failure to recognize God’s new actions when they come. In addition, it’s possible for us to be a Cyrus and think we know God because God is using us.

Lesson #2: Servant Messiah vs. servant Israel

Read Isaiah 42
42:1 – mention of the Servant, but for the next few chapters, all references are for servant Israel.

• Comparison of Servant vs servant – Servant brings justice to the nations, that which the sinful servant could not do on its own strength
• The servant Israel is described as fearful, requiring continued assurance of God’s continuing love and care

42:10-12 – prophet is so joyous because God’s Servant will make God’s salvation available not just to Israel but to the entire world – this was not realized until the book of Acts – Apostle Paul

42:18-19 – servant is blind and deaf

Important verses – Preview of the theme of the final chapters – glory – 43:7-10 – what qualifies them for a restoration – they were brought into existence – called, created, formed, made – for one purpose: the glory of God.

43:10 – my witness, my servant – same calling – be a witness to the glory of God before a watching world. The Servant who is a Witness – displaying the character of God

Why must God deliver his people? Because His name is at stake. Not only that, he must cause us to be accurate witnesses who display the glory of God.

How can we be accurate witnesses? Answer: through His Spirit

**Read Isaiah 44:1-8 – foreshadowing of Pentecost

• 44:1-5 – solution to their sinful tendency is giving his Spirit – empowers them to be effective witnesses
• 44:3 – filled with the Spirit
• 44:6-8 – we are witnesses

Without the Spirit, the people are susceptible to falling back into the same spiritual deficiency which necessitated the exile in the first place.

Reflection: goal of giving glory to God + the role of HS

Lesson #3: Power of prophecy
42:9 – If these words were first spoken by Isaiah about 700 BC and came to fulfillment in 539 BC.

48:4-5 – Why did God tell in advance what he was going to do? It is because we are sinners. Sin – God, I don’t need you, insistence on my way at all costs.

Reflection – what happens when God answers your prayers?

48:7 – All our attempts to be independent are frustrated by our lack of knowledge. the purpose of prophesy is not so that we can know the future, but so that we can put our trust in God.

Natural tendency to idolatry. To break that, God has to use prophecy, even one that is so out of the box – 1) using Cyrus, a pagan king of Persia and 2) Messiah in Isaiah 53.

Desperate need to keep things under control. We don’t like surprises.

We cannot put God in a box – I know God, I know how he has worked in the past. Exodus – yeah, I expect a second Exodus. Not all the Prophecies regarding Israel have been fulfilled, but I think there is a danger in trying to figure it all out and trying to find the exact day of the End of the world. Isaiah and Ezekiel warn of people who chase after prophesies but they miss the Giver of the prophesies.

Whatever we think we know, Isaiah shows us that God will always surprise us and He will do things out of the box. Like using Cyrus. Like a Messiah dying on a cross. And if we are expecting a particular kind of future, then we can be like the Jews of today and miss recognizing the coming Messiah.

But for sure, God will do something so impossible, so improbable that the nation of Israel along with representatives from every nation will recognize the true living God in the last days.

God is knowable, we can be intimate with him, but there is an element of God that he is far beyond us. We need to be humble. We need to check our heart – surrender our idols. We need to continually seek God and ask for his spirit.

Testimony – Christian since 1993
first 10 years – i know God – i had a certain lens
next 5 years – God shattering that lens – God, who are you?
Last year or so – God has been slowly revealing himself step by step through his Word

TAKE HOME LESSONS

• God of surprises – using a pagan king as an anointed deliverer
• Who could have predicted that God would send a Messiah who needs to suffer
• Prophecies – as sinners, we need to be shocked by seeing prophesies fulfilled that demonstrate God’s power and activity in history. Even with Isaiah 53 being so specific, how is it that the Jews could miss the coming Messiah? That much, we limit God speaking into our lives by assuming he will work a certain way – a second Exodus, a second Moses, a parting of the Red Sea, something splendid and miraculous, not a man bleeding on a cross.

Part 4 – Isaiah 56-66