OPENS WITH THE LORD SAYING TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL...LISTEN TO ME AND AWAKE!!!!

Verses 1-3 tells us LISTEN TO ME: the LORD's past faithfulness is a promise of future blessing.

"Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him. For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."

LISTEN TO ME, you who follow after righteousness...

The LORD here speaks to His people; but His people have had trouble listening to Him. So THREE times in this chapter ALONE, the exhortation is given: LISTEN TO ME.

Look to THE ROCK from which you were hewn … Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you:

ALMIGHTY GOD counsels His people to look at His work in His people in days past. This is one of the great glories of God's Word to us; it tells us how God has dealt with His people, and gives us faith and guidance for His work in our lives - IF WE WILL LISTEN TO HIM.

AND REMEMBER, AS ISAIAH REPEATS GOD'S WORDS TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL, ISRAEL WAS in a discouraged place. They felt defeated, and the prophet tells them to look to God's work in and through His people in days past.

REDPATH SAYS IT WELL OF THIS SCRIPTURE, "Once a Christian gets eaten up with DISCOURAGEMENT & UNBELIEF it takes a GREAT DEAL to shake him out of it. Those TWO emotions are the masterstrokes of Satan. So long as the child of God maintains an attitude of praise and trust in the Lord, then he is invincible. Once the devil gets him discouraged, that poor man in really going to take a knocking!"

For I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him...

Abraham was ONE man, from ONE simple family. Yet God called him alone, and increased him. This should remind His people today that God DOES NOT NEED MANY people to do a great work.

He CAN bless and increase one man alone.

AND IN THIS CHAPTER, THE LORD HAS Isaiah REMIND HIS PEOPLE - in view here are the RETURNING EXILES from Babylon, and those of Israel's FUTURE ULTIMATE regathering - to not be discouraged of their SMALL numbers, but realize that just as He did great things with Abraham and Sarah, He CAN AND WILL DO great things through them.

AND REMEMBER....FROM OUR STUDY OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH...WE KNOW OF THE MILLIONS WHO WENT INTO CAPTIVITY/EXILE IN BABYLON 800 MILES AWAY, ONLY A TOTAL OF 49 THOUSAND PEOPLE CHOSE TO RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND GOD GAVE THEM...THE REST CHOSE TO STAY WHERE THEIR LIVES WERE SETTLED AND THEIR JOBS & LIFE STYLES WERE ASSURED...INSTEAD OF RETURNING TO A DESTROYED PROMISED LAND...WHERE THEY WOULD HAVE TO FINISH REBUILDING IT AND DEFEND IT AGAINST ENEMIES ALL AROUND THEM.

AND THEY MUST HAVE THOUGHT...WE WILL NEVER MAKE IT...WE NEED EVERYONE TO COME WITH US IF WE ARE TO SUCCEED IN REBUILDING THE CITIES, THE TEMPLE, THE WALLS, AND PLANT AND REGROW WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE, AS WELL THE SHEER NUMBERS NEEDED TO DEFEND THEM FROM THEIR ENEMIES.

AS ALWAYS THE LORD READ THEIR HEARTS, KNEW THEIR FEARS AND SOUGHT TO REMIND THEM...THEY STEMMED FROM THE LORD USING TWO PEOPLE...WHAT HE DID BEFORE...HE CAN DO AGAIN...IF THEY PUT THEIR FAITH AND TRUST IN THEIR GOD ALMIGHTY.

Remembering Abraham and Sarah should give them hope for this promise...

For the LORD will comfort Zion … He will make her wilderness like Eden … Joy and gladness will be found in it. The promise seems too good to be true, but by faithfully remembering God's work in people like Abraham and Sarah, they would have the faith to believe God's promise to them today.

This shows how we can benefit through God's work in the lives of others. When we hear of what God has done and is doing in the lives of others, it can build our faith for God's work in our own lives.

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED, HOW WE WHO KNOW AND LOVE THE LORD JESUS, READ AND STUDY HIS WORD, GIVE BIBLICAL ANALOGIES TO EXPLAIN OUR CIRCUMSTANCES?

WE SAY THINGS LIKE...I AM IN A DAVID AND GOLIATH MOMENT...I AM FACING LOTS OF GIANTS.

OR...

I AM DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN...

I FEEL LIKE SHADRACH, MESHACH, & ABEDNEGO BEFORE THE FIERY FURNACE.

I AM WAITING FOR MY MANNA AND QUAIL MOMENT...

I AM AT THE RED SEA WAITING FOR JESUS TO PART IT...

I KNOW HOW JOSEPH FELT WHEN HE WAS BETRAYED...

I FEEL AS LOST AS THE ISRAELITES DID IN THE WILDERNESS.

I FEEL AS ABANDONED AS NAOMI RIGHT NOW.

AND THOUGH, AT THE TIME, WE FEEL LIKE ANY OF THE ABOVE, OUR JESUS SPIRIT LIVING WITHIN US ENCOURAGES US TO REMEMBER WHAT THE LORD DID FOR THEM.

WHETHER WE KNEW IT OR NOT....THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ENCOURAGING US TO REMEMBER...TO TRUST...TO KEEP GOING...DO NOT DESPAIR...JESUS IS WITH US...JESUS WILL BRING US THROUGH.

AND WE NEED TO REMEMBER, WE HAVE WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVERS IN ALMIGHTY GOD DID NOT HAVE INDIVIDUALLY...WE HAVE JESUS SPIRIT, THE GREAT I AM, LIVING WITHIN US...SPEAKING TO OUR HEART AND MIND AND SPIRIT...ALL THE TIME...IFFFFFFFFFFF WE LISTEN.

THE OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVERS, MOST DID NOT HAVE, AND COULD NOT AFFORD ONE SCROLL OF THE BIBLE, MUCH ALL ALL THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THAT POINT, DEPENDED ON THE PRIESTS AND THE LORD'S PROPHETS TO SPEAK FOR HIM TO THEM....JUST AS ISAIAH IS DOING HERE.

ISAIAH IS REPEATING WORD FOR WORD WHAT THE LORD PROMISES THEM...

He WILL make HER wilderness LIKE Eden, and HER desert LIKE the garden of the LORD reminds us that though these promises had A NEAR fulfillment in the return from Babylon's captivity, their ULTIMATE fulfillment is in a regathered, blessed, and saved Israel in the millennium.

THE BEAUTY, THE GROWTH, THE WATER, THE SETTLEMENTS, THE LUSH GREENNESS WE NOW TODAY SEE IN ISRAEL, AS THE OASIS IN THE DESERT SURROUNDING THEM....IS BUT A PALE GLIMPSE, INTO WHAT ALL OF ISRAEL WILL BECOME DURING THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS CHRIST, AMEN?!

Verses 4-6 THE LORD SAYS AGAIN LISTEN: The LORD's salvation and righteousness are forever.

"Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, and I will make My justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands will wait upon Me, and on My arm they will trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner; but My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished."

I will make MY justice rest as a light of the peoples...

When the LORD ultimately regathers, blesses, and saves Israel, He will also shine forth His justice to all the world - to Israel (My nation) and to all the nations (the peoples).

For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment...

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

These are references to phenomenon surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus, WHEN HE RETURNS WITH THE CHURCH, HIS WARRIOR ANGELS TO RESCUE ISRAEL AT THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON told to us in Matthew 24:35, 2 Peter 3:7-10, Revelation 6:12-17.

This is ultimately when the justice of the LORD will be displayed to Israel and all nations.

The judgment of the LORD isn't only evident in creation, but in the man also: Those who dwell in it will die in like manner.

But MY salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished: Those tied to the earth, not heaven will be cast away, and even the earth will vanish away. But never the righteousness or salvation of God. They remain, and are more permanent than even the heavens and the earth.


We DO NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID, NOR LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO TELLS US THAT GOD WILL CHANGE HIS CHARACTER (HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS) NOR HIS MIND ABOUT US & OUR SALVATION GIFT IN HIM.

JESUS CHRIST PROMISED THE NATION OF ISRAEL THEN AND NOW, JUST AS HE PROMISED THIS DURING HIS MINISTRY ON THIS EARTH.

OUR ALMIGHTY GOD IS A PROMISE MAKER AND A PROMISE KEEPER.

HE PROMISED TO SEND HIS SON, AS A FREE GIFT, TO WHOSOEVER WILL CALL ON JESUS...AND WHOSOEVER WILL COME TO JESUS...WILL BE SAVED.
WHOSOEVER MEANS MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN...ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO DOES SO IS PROMISED SALVATION THROUGH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST!
This is something to listen to!

Verses 7-8 tells us again LISTEN TO ME: Fear God, not man.

"Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but My righteousness will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation."

LISTEN TO ME … Do not fear the reproach of men...

Knowing the permanence of the righteousness and salvation of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the passing nature of the wicked (For the moth will eat them up like a garment), we should listen, and not be afraid of men.


CHARLES SPURGEON says it well, "I cannot imagine a true man saying, 'I love Christ, but I do not want others to know that I love him, lest they should laugh at me.' That is a reason to be laughed at, or rather, to be wept over. Afraid of being laughed at? Oh sir, this is indeed a cowardly fear!"

CHARLES SPURGEON adds, "Yet you are a coward. Yes, put it down in English: you are a coward. If anybody called you so you would turn red in the face; and perhaps you are not a coward in reference to any other subject. What a shameful thing it is that while you are bold about everything else you are cowardly about Jesus Christ. Brave for the world and cowardly towards Christ!"

But MY righteousness will be forever, and MY salvation from generation to generation...

Knowing that the righteousness and salvation of the LORD are PERMANENT and the opposition and mocking of the wicked is TEMPORARY, we should stand strong in faith.


This is something to listen to, AMEN?!


Verses 9-16 tells us AWAKE! AWAKE! Wake up to the power and greatness of the LORD.

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, and wounded the serpent? Are You not the One who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail. But I am the LORD your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared; the LORD of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My people.'"


Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD!...

Here, the faithful believer calls out to the LORD, looking to Him for salvation. They know of God's great works in the past (Awake as in ancient days), but ask God to act on their behalf now.


Curiously, though it is - rightfully - phrased this way, it is really more of a wake up call to faith for the believer than an attempt to wake up God.

Psalm 121:4 reminds us, "Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."

Yet it is still wonderful for the believer to call upon the LORD this way!

WHY?

Because it awakens OUR faith!


Are You not the arm that cut rahab apart, and wounded the serpent? Among God's great works remembered is His defeat of rahab.

But SOME HAVE SAID...WHEN did God cut rahab apart, and wound a serpent?

REMEMBER...The name rahab means PRIDE, and ever since the Garden of Eden, the serpent has been associated with Satan & pride in Genesis 3:1-6.


This speaks in poetic terms of God's victory over Satan, as it does also in Psalm 89:10.

With every enemy defeated, and every obstacle taken care of, So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing.


This is ANOTHER PROMISE another with both a near and an ultimate fulfillment.

Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die...

With promises this glorious, and a God this mighty, we have no reason to fear man. Man can never undo God's plan for our lives. Compared to the great power of God, they are like grass.

You forget the LORD your Maker … You have feared continually every day...

The two go together.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

We will ONLY LIVE IN FEAR continually every day if we FORGET the LORD.

When we forget the LORD, we forget His tender love and care for us...

I have covered you with the shadow of My hand … and say to Zion, "You are My people."

This is something to be awake to, AMEN?

The phrase I have covered you with the shadow of My hand reminds us of how God covered Moses with His hand, as Moses hid in the rock and the LORD made His glory to pass before Moses told to us in Exodus 33:17-23.

The LORD would shelter and protect His people the same way.

Nothing comes to us unless it has first passed through His counsel.

CHARLES SPURGEON reminds us, "Ask the question again, 'Where is the fury of the oppressor?' And the answer comes, it is under the control of God. Even Satan, your fiercest foe, - God created him, God governs him, God can do with him just as he pleases. Then as to that poverty of which you are afraid, it will not come unless God permits it; and if it does come, the Lord can alleviate it."


Verses 17-23 tells us WAKE UP to the reality of God's wrath.

"Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out. There is no one to guide her among all the sons she has brought forth; nor is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have come to you; who will be sorry for you?; Desolation and destruction, famine and sword; by whom will I comfort you? Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net; they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God. Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, and drunk but not with wine. Thus says your Lord, the LORD and your God, who pleads the cause of His people: "See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it. But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to you, 'Lie down, that we may walk over you.' And you have laid your body like the ground, and as the street, for those who walk over."


Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem...


This wake up call is directed right at Jerusalem.


God's people sometimes spiritually "fall asleep" and need to be awakened.


Romans 13:11-12 says, "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light."


You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD, the cup of His fury...

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

A common picture of judgment in the Old Testament is the cup of God's wrath or fury. The idea is that God gives a cup "full" of His wrath to those who are under judgment, and they must drink it. Here, God calls Jerusalem to remember that they have drunk at the hand of the LORD, the cup of His fury when they experienced God's judgment through the Babylonians.


If possible, the image is even strengthened...


You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Not only did Jerusalem drink the cup, they drained it - drinking down to the dregs at the bottom of the cup. They had experienced desolation and destruction, famine and sword, and this was God's cup for them.

AND REMEMBER....This powerful image was in the mind of Jesus when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion.

REMEMBER LUKE 22:52 When JESUS CHRIST prayed, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

JESUS CHRIST had in mind the cup of God's wrath He was about to drink - to the dregs & drain it out - at the cross.


See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it...


The LORD knows when to give the cup, and when to take it from His people. Now is time for their redemption and for the shame of their enemies, so the LORD promises, I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you.


We should always be awake to God's timing and loving promises.


CHARLES SPURGEON says it well, "When faith is weak men are in a dreadful hurry, but strong faith does not judge the Lord to be slack concerning his promise. As God achieves his purpose with infinite leisure, he loves a faith that is patient and looks not for its reward this day or the next. 'He that believeth shall not make haste': that is to say, he shall not be ashamed or confounded by present trials so as to rush upon unbelieving actions. Faith leaves times and seasons with God to whom they belong."


Who have said to you, "Lie down, that we may walk over you."


THE LORD IS REFERRING TO this "barbaric practice … that is well documented in the ancient Near East, featured especially, but not exclusively, in Assyrian inscriptions."


SO THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY PROMISES TO GIVE BACK EVERY HUMILIATION to those who humiliated His people.


THE ENEMIES OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL TODAY & THOSE THAT PERSECUTE, TORTURE, SHAME, HUMILIATE JESUS BELIEVERS IN THIS LIFE....WOULD DO WELL TO READ ISAIAH...AND TO TAKE HEED....AND TO FEAR.


THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY KEEPS EXCELLENT RECORDS...AND NOT ONE HURT, CRY, SHAME, SADNESS, SORROW, PAIN, HUMILIATION THAT IS VISITED UPON ISRAEL IS FORGOTTEN...AND IT WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO THOSE WHO DARE TO HARM ISRAEL AND THOSE WHO TOUCH THOSE WHO LOVE HIS SON JESUS CHRIST AND CALL HIM LORD, SAVIOR, MASTER AND FRIEND...