ISAIAH 48 OPENS WITH:

CHASTENING AND MERCY FOR JUDAH

Verses 1-2 tells us The LORD clearly sees the hard heart & the hypocrisy of Judah.

"Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness; for they call themselves after the holy city, and lean on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is His name."

House of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel...

Judah SHOULD PAY ATTENTION & TAKE NOTICE at this opening statement FROM THE LORD.

WHY?

God identifies His people as the house of Jacob - the name Jacob FIRST AND WE KNOW JACOB MEANS "deceiver, trickster, cheater" - and says they NOW ONLY HAVE the name of Israel, NOT the character of Israel, which means "governed by God."

And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah...

The SECOND STATEMENT FROM GOD is NOT any more complimentary to the southern kingdom of Judah.

WHY?

God REMINDS THEM of their tribal ancestor, Judah, who was noted for his cruelty told to us in Genesis 37:26-27 and Judah's immorality told to us in Genesis 38.

IN OTHER WORDS...The LORD speaks to His people and says, "You come from your father Judah." It's hardly a compliment.

Who SWEAR by the name of the LORD … but NOT in truth or in righteousness...

God exposes THE SINS of His people. They take HIS NAME, and identify with HIS HOLY CITY, and give OUTWARD appearance that they lean on the God of Israel. Yet it IS ONLY IMAGE, THEIR PUBLIC FACE, THEIR OUTWARD IMAGE....NOT REALITY, and God sees through the image to the reality.

Verses 3-5 tells us The LORD sees that Judah has NO EXCUSE.

"I have declared the former things from the beginning; they went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I knew that you were obstinate, and your neck was an iron sinew, and your brow bronze, even from the beginning I have declared it to you; before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, lest you should say, "My idol has done them, and my carved image and my molded image have commanded them."

I have declared the former things from the beginning … Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass...

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

The LORD has shown Israel HIS POWER to PERFECTLY & PRECISELY declare the future in predictive prophecy. He did this because HE KNEW...that you were obstinate, knowing Israel's love of idolatry, He gave them irrefutable evidence.

This means that Judah was WITHOUT EXCUSE.

They KNEW the greatness and power of God, yet they still lived with ONLY a religious image, without a spiritual reality.

Verses 6-8 tells us The LORD sees how deep the sinfulness of Judah is.

"You have heard; see all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning; and before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, "Of course I knew them." Surely you did not hear, surely you did not know; surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb."

You HAVE heard; SEE all this. And will you NOT declare it?

It is as if the LORD is amazed that His people have seen all of His great power and glory, yet they still stand in obstinate rebellion against Him.

I READ THIS AND IT REMINDED ME OF MY OWN CHILDHOOD STUBBORNNESS, AND MY CHILDREN WHO ALSO HAD MOMENTS OF....LITTLE HANDS ON HIPS, CHIN JUTTED OUT, AND DEFIANCE IN THEIR EYES AS THEY SAID...NO I WILL NOT DO IT...AND YOU CAN NOT MAKE ME!

FOR ME, AS A PARENT & NOW A GRANDPARENT IT WAS PARTS OUTWARD AMAZEMENT AND INNER HUMOR....BECAUSE I KNEW I COULD ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MAKE THEM DO IT, MAKE THEM OBEY ME, BUT MY LOVE FOR THEM...WANTED TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO CHOOSE TO BE OBEDIENT..INSTEAD OF FORCED OBEDIENCE.

AND AS BILL COSBY SAID PARENTING HIS OWN CHILDREN..."I REMEMBERED MY OWN MOTHER SAYING TO ME, ONE DAY BILL YOU WILL GET PAYBACK...YOU WILL HAVE CHILDREN WHO ACT JUST LIKE YOU ARE ACTING NOW...AND IT WAS TRUE...I AM STUBBORN, MY WIFE IS STUBBORN, SO OUR KIDS WERE LOADED WITH STUBBORN!"


AND THE LORD DOES NOT PULL HIS PUNCHES HERE EITHER...WHEN HE SAYS....

For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb...

The LORD states the reason why His people are so deeply sinful. They are sinners from the womb, so their sinfulness is deeply entrenched.

It is a difficult concept for our individualistic ears, but the Bible teaches that we are sinners from the womb, and that we inherited a sin nature because we descend from Adam and sinned in Adam CONFIRMED TO US IN Romans 5:12.

It IS NOT our individual acts of sin that make us sinners; it is our descent from Adam. Our individual acts of sin MERELY PROVE that each of us is a transgressor from the womb, AMEN?

Verses 9-13 tells us The reason for the LORD's MERCY to His people.

"For My name's sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another. Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together."

For My name's sake I will defer My anger...

MANY WHO READ THIS PASSAGE ASK, Knowing how deeply sinful His people are, why would the LORD ever show mercy to His people?

THE LORD ANSWERS THAT RIGHT HERE...

He DEFERS HIS ANGER for HIS NAME'S SAKE!

It IS NOT because Israel DESERVES MERCY.

WHY?

BECAUSE THE LORD GOD'S MERCY CAN NEVER BE DESERVED.

THE LORD GOD GIVES IT to glorify Himself and to further His eternal purpose.

I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it...

WHY has a disobedient Israel FELT refining fires from the LORD?
Again, it is for the sake and honor and glory of the LORD.

SOME ARE BOTHERED...SOME GET ANGRY...TO HEAR AND KNOW that THE LORD ALLOWS trials and His refining fires in our lives for His own sake!

AT THOSE TIMES, WHEN WE ARE BOTHERED OR ANGRY...WE NEED TO REMEMBER that we are NOT at the center of the universe, but THE LORD GOD is.

AND WE NEED TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING HE DOES, EVERY HE ALLOWS....furthers His eternal purpose for us, Amen?!

I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last … My right hand has stretched out the heavens...

AND RIGHT HERE TO ANSWER ANY RESENTMENT among His people, God reminds them WHY He allows things for His glory and to further His praise.

He CAN AND DOES DO IT because of who He is - the only True God, the God of all glory, the God of all eternity, the God of all Creation.

IN OTHER WORDS...REMEMBER WHO I AM....I SEE ALL THINGS...I KNOW ALL THINGS...AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEE, NOR DO YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND....JUST TRUST ME.

Verses 14-19 tells us the unfulfilled potential of God's disobedient people.

"All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me. Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me."

The LORD loves him...
Though the LORD is the God of all glory and power, He is NOT some kind of "ego-maniac." He is motivated by love for His people.

It is the LORD's love for us that makes Him want us to obey and praise Him.

Love desires, quite properly, that things work according to their design and purpose.

We were designed and purposed to obey and praise our Creator.

God can call us to submit to Him, and honor Him, for our good, not to satisfy some need in God.

As a child, I heard my parents say MANY times, when my CONTINUED stubbornness, temper, and disobedience forced them to spank me, "This is going to hurt me FAR MORE than it will hurt you!" I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE BIGGEST LIE AND THE MOST INSANE PRONOUNCEMENT & EXCUSE THEY COULD MAKE...because I WAS THE ONE WHO WENT WITHOUT SUPPER, OR GOT SPANKED OR RESTRICTED IN SOME WAY...HOW ABOUT YOU?

BUT IT WAS NOT UNTIL I BECAME A PARENT, HAD HELD THAT PRECIOUS GIFT FROM JESUS IN MY ARMS AND AS THEY GREW, THAT WHAT MY PARENTS HAD SAID WAS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH...TO BE FORCED TO SPANK MY CHILDREN WHEN THEY REPEATEDLY AND ADAMANTLY REFUSED TO OBEY ME, MADE ME SICK AT MY STOMACH....IT GAVE ME A HEADACHE...BUT FAR WORSE IT BROKE MY HEART...MANY TIMES I WAS PHYSICALLY ILL AFTERWARDS....AND WENT IN THE BATHROOM AND CRIED OVER IT.

HOW CAN WE THINK, OUR LORD GOD, WHO CREATED US IN HIS IMAGE, AND LOVES EVERY SINFUL STUBBORN INCH OF US..HURTS ANY LESS WHEN HE MUST DISCIPLINE STUBBORN CHILDREN?

So, just as much as it is THE LOVE of the LORD for His people that shall do His pleasure on Babylon -punishing this nation that set itself AGAINST His people OF THEIR OWN FREEWILL CHOICE - so it is the love of the LORD that allows the refining fires to touch His people.

Come near to Me, hear this … now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me...

AND RIGHT HERE...IS ANOTHER APPEARANCE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST LONG BEFORE BETHLEHEM. JESUS CHRIST IS the Servant of the LORD, the Messiah Himself speaking. Only He was from the beginning. RIGHT HERE The Messiah is pleading with His people!

AS GROGAN SAYS IT SO WELL OF THIS VERSE..."Finally in verse 16 ANOTHER speaker ANOTHER VOICE...mysteriously enters the prophecy SPOKEN TO ISAIAH. Perhaps THE LORD GOD INTRODUCES HIS SERVANT, HIS MESSIAH TO COME, because the people were LOOKING FORWARD TO THE near deliverer in KING CYRUS to come over two hundred years later, when in fact Cyrus' work is in fact simply a harbinger, of the MUCH GREATER DELIVERANCE THE LORD GOD would bring to God's people IN JESUS CHRIST THE MESSIAH."

Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! In light of His power and love for Israel, God laments their unfulfilled potential, unfulfilled because of their CONTINUED STUBBORN disobedience.

IF ONLY they had obeyed, then your peace would have been like a river. Peace as flowing, bountiful, and life giving as a river!

IF ONLY they had only obeyed, then your righteousness would have beenlike the waves of the sea. Righteousness as certain, as unending, as reliable as the sea!

IF ONLY they had only obeyed, then your descendants would have been like the sand. Descendants as numerous and as dense in population as the sand!

REDPATH SAYS IT WELL OF THIS PASSAGE..."It is sobering to think what unfulfilled potential we have, and what disobedience or unbelief keeps us from everything God has for us. "Yes, I am deeply impressed with the simplicity of the road to revival. Just twenty-four hours' obedience in our lives, and we would be living in such a flood tide of Holy Spirit blessing that there would not be room enough to contain it!"

Verses 20-22 tells us Praise for the LORD's redemption - and a warning.

"Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, declare, proclaim this, utter it to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!" And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out. "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldees! With a voice of singing...

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

THE LORD IS SAYING...despite Israel's disobedience and unfulfilled potential, the LORD STILL LOVES them and will STILL FREE them from their captivity in Babylon. When they leave Babylon, they will go forth with a voice of singing.

Declare, proclaim this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!"....

God tells His people to declare His praises even to the end of the earth. The whole world should know how great and merciful God is!

"There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

YOU NOTICE...Hand in hand with praise for the greatness of the LORD is a contrast - the destined MISERY for the wicked.

Often, it MAY SEEM that the way of the wicked is peaceful. This was how it seemed to the KING DAVID in Psalm 73; yet when he saw the end of the wicked, and gained perspective in the house of the LORD, he knew that ultimately, there is NO PEACE… for THE WICKED.

ONCE AGAIN...THIS IS THE LORD GOD'S ENDING REFRAIN TO ISAIAH...THE WICKED MAY SEEM TO BE WINING...BUT THE LORD GOD REMINDS US THERE IS NO TRUE PEACE...THERE IS CERTAINLY NO ETERNAL PEACE FOR THE WICKED IN THIS WORLD.

WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AND LEARNED FROM THIS BROAD SECTION OF ISAIAH, FROM ISAIAH 40-48...IS THAT THE LORD IS FOCUSED ON:
THE PROMISES OF God's deliverance of His people from their captivity in Babylon.

AND GIVING THEM THE KING'S NAME, CYRUS, A GENTILE KING, SOME 200 + YEARS IN ADVANCE.

AND THE LORD TELLS HIS PEOPLE EXACTLY HOW IT WILL HAPPEN THAT KING CYRUS AND HIS ARMIES WILL CONQUER & DESTROY THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE & FREE THE NATION OF ISRAEL TO RETURN TO THEIR PROMISED LAND.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, OVER AND OVER AGAIN, THE LORD REMINDS AND SHOWS US HIS HEART....

HIS DESIRE to deliver HIS people PROVES HIS love.

HIS ability to deliver HIS people
proves HIS power.

HIS prophetic knowledge of the deliverer proves HIS uniqueness among all gods.

STRIVE TO OBEY THE LORD.

STRIVE TO HONOR AND PRAISE THE LORD.

STRIVE TO TRUST IN THE LORD'S LOVE AND HIS PLAN AND HIS LONG-SUFFERING GOODNESS.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, FROM FRONT TO BACK, THE LORD IS CONSTANTLY PLEADING WITH LOST MANKIND...CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU SHALL BE ETERNALLY SAVED...

TOMORROW IS PROMISED TO NONE. SO CALL ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, GOD'S MESSIAH, GOD'S MESSENGER, WHILE YOU MAY.