ISAIAH 44
OPENS WITH....THE LORD, YOUR REDEEMER PROMISES TO POUR OUT HIS SPIRIT.
Verses 1-4 tells us Fear not, knowing the promise of the outpoured Spirit.
"Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: "Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses."
Yet HEAR NOW...Though Isaiah 43 ended with a warning of judgment, it does NOT mean God TAKES BACK His promise of hope and restoration. Israel can still know the goodness of the LORD, if they will only turn back to Him.
Thus says the LORD who made you...This reminds us that God is STILL active in and responsible for creation. He didn't just create Adam and Eve and then let the whole thing go. There is a sense in which God has made each one of us, so we each have a personal obligation to Him as our Creator, AMEN?
DID YOU KNOW...
The name Jeshurun means "the upright one." It is used here as a contrast to the name Jacob, even as Israel is sometimes used as a contrast to Jacob.
AND...the name Jeshurun appears only THREE more times in the Old Testament: Deuteronomy 32:15, 33:5, 26; and in all cases it is used OF ISRAEL… this word bespeaks a WONDER OF GRACE, for He calls His deeply sinful people His beloved, His upright one.
Fear not … For I will pour water on him … I will pour My Spirit on your descendants...This is a glorious promise to a humble, returning Israel. God will not simply give them His Spirit; He will pour out His Spirit on them as if water was poured over them.
This is a freedom in the giving of the Spirit.
This is a flow in the giving of the Spirit.
This is abundance in the giving of the Spirit.
This is an evident giving of the Spirit.
God WANTS to pour His Spirit upon His people!
If you experience a few drops, God wants to pour.
If you are bone dry, God wants to pour.
If you know the pour, God wants to keep pouring!
We must learn to stop saying "when" as God pours!
CHARLES SPURGEON says it well...."Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing; we are as ships without wind, or chariots without steeds, like branches without sap, we are withered; like coals without fire, we are useless; as an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted. I desire both to feel and to confess this fact whenever I attempt to preach. I do not wish to get away from it, or to conceal it, nor can I, for I am often made to feel it to the deep humbling of my spirit."
Who receives this gift?...
HE OR SHE WHO IS THIRSTY!
When we are thirsty for the outpouring of the Spirit, ask for it and receive it in faith, we can expect to be poured on. God is looking for dry ground to pour out floods upon!
And My blessing on your offspring...
God doesn't only want to pour His Spirit; He also wants to pour His blessing, on us and our offspring.
They will spring up among the grass like willows...
The effect of the poured-out Spirit is LIFE. Life springs up and grows where the Spirit of God is poured out.
Verse 5 gives us the PROMISE OF BELONGING to the LORD.
"One will say, "I am the Lord's"; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand, "The Lord's," and name himself by the name of Israel."
One will say, "I am the Lord's"...
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Another effect of the poured out Spirit is that He identifies us as belonging to the Lord. When the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, we KNOW we belong to the Lord, and we ARE NOT afraid to say it.
REMEMBER EPHESIANS 1:13, which confirms & reminds us, "The Holy Spirit is an identifying seal upon the believer."
Another will write with his hand, "The Lord's," and name himself by the name of Israel...
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
When the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, we WANT to take the name of the Lord. We WANT everyone to know we belong to Him, and He belongs to us, AMEN?
CHARLES SPURGEON tells us, "The Lord's": "The text may have another rendering, for, if you notice, the word 'with' in the text is in italics, to show that it was inserted by the translators. It might run thus: 'Another shall subscribe his hand unto the Lord.' This alludes to the custom which still exists, but which was more common in those days, of a servant being marked or tattooed in the hand with his master's name … Paul alludes to this when he says, 'Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus;' as much as to say, 'I am Christ's: I have had his name branded upon me.'"
Verses 6-8 tells us The LORD declares to witnesses that HE ALONE IS GOD.
"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one."
I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God...
The LORD has already taken this unique title in Isaiah 41:4, in the same context of proclaiming His glory against the feeble false gods. An idol can never be the First, because an idol needs someone to make him. An idol can never be the Last, because they wear out and break. But the Lord GOD of Israel is both the First and the Last; He is completely unique, and besides Him there is no God.
HE ALONE IS NOT CREATED...HE ALWAYS HAS BEEN.
HE ALONE DOES NOT BREAK.
HE ALONE DOES NOT WEAR OUT!
AND REMEMBER....OUR JESUS takes the same title of THE FIRST AND THE LAST in Revelation 1:17 and 22:13.
If the LORD is the First and the Last according to Isaiah 44:6, and if Jesus is the First and the Last according to Revelation 1:17 and 22:13, since there cannot be two firsts or two lasts, Jesus must be the LORD God!
Who CAN PROCLAIM as I do?
THE LORD IS TELLING US SIMPLY AND CRYSTAL CLEAR....because HE IS the First and the Last, He lives outside our time-domain, and can proclaim things before they happen. He can proclaim the things that are coming and shall come. This shows God really is who He says He is, watching and directing the parade of human and cosmic history as it makes its course down His appointed path.
Do NOT fear, nor be afraid...
Knowing these truths about God isn't only good for winning theological quiz games. When we really know who God is, and His great wisdom and authority over all things, it erases ALL FEAR, WORRY, AND DOUBT in our lives, AMEN?!
You ARE MY WITNESSES
Is there a God besides Me? God says to His people, "You are all witnesses of these truths. Tell Me yourself - is there any God besides Me?"
Because there is no other God besides the LORD, it means that God the Father is the LORD, God the Son is the LORD, and God the Holy Spirit is the LORD.
Yahweh - the name translated by the small-caps LORD -is the Triune God, the One God in Three Persons. There are no "grades" or "degrees" to TRUE deity. There are false gods, symbolic gods, and the true God -and the only true God is Yahweh, the LORD.
Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one: Since God is the only God, He is the only solid ground to build our life upon, AMEN?
IN THIS DAY AND AGE....of hundreds of "gods" little "g", I have found that saying....GOD BLESS YOU...does NOT bother or shed much light on WHO MY GOD IS...because people can TAKE IT TO MEAN....ALLAH, MOHAMMED, BUDDHA, VISHNU...an ocean of "gods"...BUT I WANT THEM TO KNOW WHO MY GOD IS...and there is ONLY ONE JESUS CHRIST...ONLY ONE.
SO NOW I SAY...JESUS BLESS YOU...THANK YOU JESUS...BE BLESSED AND STAY BLESSED IN OUR JESUS CHRIST...SO THEY WILL KNOW THE NAME OF MY LORD, SAVIOR, MASTER, & FRIEND, AMEN!
AND IT IS THE RIGHT THING FOR US TO DO...
WHY?
BECAUSE ALMIGHTY GOD HIMSELF...TELLS US IN HIS WORD...
WHERE?
JOHN 3:35, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given ALL things into HIS hand."
JOHN 13:3, "Jesus knowing that the Father had given ALL things into HIS hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;"
JOHN 14:6, Jesus tells us himself, " I AM the way, the truth, and the life, NO MAN cometh unto The Father, but by ME."
Verses 9-20 tells us of the FOLLY OF IDOL MAKERS.
Adam Clarke says it well of this POWERFUL passage: "The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry; they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah … far exceeds anything that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition."
HERE IS WHAT THE LORD GOD SAYS TO IDOL MAKERS.
"Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit; they are their own witnesses; they neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? Surely all his companions would be ashamed; and the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together. The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The craftsman stretches out his rule, he marks one out with chalk; he fashions it with a plane, he marks it out with the compass, and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak; he secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself; yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; indeed he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire; with this half he eats meat; he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire." And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" They do not know nor understand; for He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. And no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; and shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
RIGHT HERE ALMIGHTY GOD TELLS ISAIAH AND SHOWS ISAIAH THE FOOLISHNESS OF IDOL MAKERS.
A simple look at how idols are made shows how silly it is to regard them as gods, so ALMIGHTY GOD SAYS the idol makers themselves are their own WORST ENEMIES...AND ARE witnesses AGAINST themselves.
WE SEE IN COURT PROCEEDINGS WHERE WITNESSES ON THE STAND, AS WELL DEFENDANTS, WILL PLEAD THE FIFTH, which MEANS, "Pleading the fifth is a reference to the Fifth Amendment. Making such a plea means that you refuse to answer the question on the ground that your answer might incriminate you, IN OTHER WORDS PROVE YOU GUILTY OR AT THE LEAST CULPABLE. If you choose to take the fifth upon questioning by an opposing party, just know that you will probably have to take the fifth for every question you are asked."
WE MAY DO THAT ON THE EARTH, BUT IN THE HEAVENLY THRONE ROOM...THE HEAVENLY COURT, THE JUDGE KNOWS ALL, SEES ALL, AND UNDERSTANDS PERFECTLY ALL THINGS...SO PLEADING THE 5TH IN HEAVEN WILL NOT SAVE YOU. ALMIGHTY GOD KEEPS EXCELLENT RECORDS...FOR THE LOST AND REJECTING, IT IS EVERY SINGLE THOUGHT, PLOT, PLAN, ACTION, BEHAVIOR...NOTHING IS HIDDEN....BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE SAVED AND REDEEMED BY THE SAVING GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST, IT MEANS WE ARE JUDGED & REWARDED FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR JESUS, AMEN?
The workmen, they are MERE men...
ALMIGHTY GOD looks at the people who make idols, and SHOWS ISAIAH & REMINDS US that they themselves are only weak, frail, flawed men.
The blacksmith becomes hungry, and his strength fails.
The craftsman works hard with wood, but it is only wood.
Half of the tree is made into an object of worship and trust, and the other half is burned for a warm fire and cooking.
They do NOT know nor understand; for He has shut their eyes, so they cannot see...
How could the idol makers fail to see what is so obvious about the stupidity of idolatry? God has shut their eyes, and shut their hearts.
Is this unjust of God?
Is THE LORD condemning man for something that He is really responsible for?
Not at all.
They first loved the darkness and chose their blindness, then the LORD gave them what they wanted. Isaiah points to this when he writes, no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say … a deceived heart has turned him aside.
REMEMBER TOO....It is the same way that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 4:21).
Sometimes it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15).
Sometimes it says simply that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, without saying who did it (Exodus 7:13).
Who really did it?
When we consider the occasions where God hardened Pharaoh's heart, we must never think that God did it against Pharaoh's will.
It was NEVER a case of Pharaoh saying, "Oh, I want to do what is good and right and I want to bless these people of Israel" and God replying, "No, for I will harden your heart against them!"
When God hardened Pharaoh's heart, He was allowing Pharaoh's heart to do what Pharaoh WANTED to do - God was giving Pharaoh over to his sin, as reminded & confirmed to us in ROMANS 1:18-32.
He feeds on ashes...
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The wooden idol from the craftsman's shop is just a warm fire away from being ashes. Worshipping and serving and idol - any false god - is as wise and as satisfying as eating ashes. We can only satisfy our soul in God, AMEN?
And he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The one given over to a false god is so entranced in the lie that he is in bondage. He holds the idol in his right hand - the hand of power and authority - yet cannot see that it is a lie.
MOTYER says it well, "The idolater picks up the figurine in his hand, holding it, but in reality it holds him. He is in bondage to a lie."
Verses 21-23 tells us remembering and praising the greatness and the glory of the true God.
"Remember these, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you." Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel."
REMEMBER THESE, O Jacob...
As Israel remembers the foolishness of making and worshipping idols, it should inspire greater trust and confidence in God. When we think about the alternatives to following the LORD, it should make us follow Him all the more closely, AMEN?
If the foolishness of the alternative wasn't enough, God gives His people many more reasons to trust and love Him...
I have formed you …
You are My servant …
You will not be forgotten by Me …
I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions …
I have redeemed you.
Any one of these would be reason enough, but combined, they are overwhelming, AMEN?
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it!
This is the ONLY LOGICAL reaction to seeing who God is. And if God's people won't do it, then creation itself will (Shout, you lower parts of the earth; break into singing, you mountains).
For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel... Creation rejoices when God saves and glorifies Himself in His people.
AND REMEMBER Paul developed this theme in Romans 8:19-22.
Verses 24-28 tells us The LORD demonstrates He is the true God by prophesying a future deliverer of Israel.
"Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness; who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says to Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,' to the cities of Judah, 'You shall be built,' and I will raise up her waste places; who says to the deep, 'Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers'; who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, "You shall be built," and to the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid."'"
The LORD makes remarkable claims through this whole passage, and in these verses.
He claims to be:
Their Redeemer...
The Creator of each person (who formed you from the womb)
The Creator of all things (who makes all things)
Wiser and greater than anyone (who frustrates the signs of the babblers)
Who upholds His own (who confirms the word of His servants)
Who resurrects dead cities (who says to Jerusalem, "You shall be inhabited")
Who has authority over all creation (who says to the deep, "Be dry!").
How can God back up such great claims?
HE TELLS ISAIAH & THE PEOPLE & US WHAT WILL HAPPEN 200 YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!
Who says of Cyrus...
God PROVES He is who He claims to be by announcing the name of a deliverer for Israel's Babylonian exiles - and Isaiah wrote this more than 200 years before Cyrus fulfilled this prophecy - by name!
SINCE WE HAVE STUDIED ISAIAH 41, WE KNOW ISAIAH alluded to the king who would bring about Israel's release from captivity in Isaiah 41:2, but in this passage, amazingly, ALMIGHTY GOD mentions him TO ISAIAH by name. "Cyrus, whom God here designeth by his proper name two hundred years before he was born, that this might be an undeniable evidence of the certainty and exactness of God's foreknowledge, and a convincing argument, and so most fit to conclude this dispute between God and idols.
DID YOU KNOW, THERE ARE SOME COMMENTATORS THAT SAY AND TEACH AND BELIEVE that Isaiah wrote much of this, but someone after the events were fulfilled just wrote in the name Cyrus. This doesn't hold true, because the whole section is carefully written to dramatically reveal the name of Cyrus. Just the name couldn't have been written in later.
AND DID YOU KNOW.....BULTEMA tells us "Josephus in his Antiquities relates that when Cyrus came across his name mentioned in this place in Isaiah 220 years before he lived, he was seized by a holy desire to fulfill what was written of him."
He is My shepherd....Cyrus was a shepherd in the sense that God used him to do something good and helpful for Israel.
AND DID YOU KNOW....
Kings were called 'shepherds' as being guardians and carers of their people, such as in 2 Samuel 24:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Jeremiah 2:8. The title here signifies that the coming conqueror is the Lord's appointed carer -even, as a shepherd would, to lead them into their PROPER pastures.
Cyrus was a special instrument in God's hand, for God's work. He would do the work of the LORD (He shall perform all My pleasure), and open the door for the work of rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple after the Babylonians destroyed them.
AND DID YOU KNOW....
The royal proclamations of Cyrus fulfilling this prophecy are found in Ezra 1:2 and 2 Chronicles 36:23.
The specific work commissioned by Cyrus is described in detail, including drying up the waters (Who says to the deep, "Be dry!") and laying the foundation for the temple (Your foundation shall be laid).
AND INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH...DID YOU KNOW...
Foundations, as Ezra records (3:10-13; 5:16), in the days of Cyrus the rebuilding of the temple did not progress beyond the laying of the foundations. THAT WE NOW KNOW, HAVING STUDIED THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH...WAS FOR HIM TO DO!
With such amazingly specific claims, it is no wonder that God proves who He is through predicted and fulfilled prophecy.
AND REMEMBER PETER CONFIRMS, REMINDS AND WARNS US....IN 2 PETER 1:19-21
"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
THE LORD GOD IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD...THE FIRST AND THE LAST...THE BEGINNING AND THE END.
WE CAN TRUST THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HIS WORD.
AND WE SHOULD TRUST IN JESUS AND HIS WORD ALONE.