Isaiah Lesson 50

All right, so good afternoon. I'm going to take us initially to Psalm 88. Now, when we start back in Isaiah, that's where we are in chapter 40, we begin what's often considered the New Testament part of Isaiah.

We're going to see more of the prophetic promises, the loving kindness of God. The Old Testament, the first half not entirely, it had a lot of promises, it did show the Messiah, but it also proclaimed the shortcomings of the nation.

So we're seeing a transition. I wanted to go to Psalm 88, the psalm of mine this week. Often the psalms, especially David's psalms, will start out with a lament. He's experiencing hardship, he's experiencing the trials, but those laments of David's typically end up in a psalm of worship, because he sees God through the trials.

So this Psalm 88 is a psalm of Heman, which Jeff told me this morning used to be his hero.

Yeah, he was a superhero, Heman.

Heman.

Back in the 80s.

This is Heman, the Ezra. This is Heman, the Ezra of height, and Psalm 88 is a lament, but it continues predominantly throughout the entire psalm. You have put me in the depths of the pit, verse six. I am shut out so I cannot escape, verse eight.

Oh Lord, why do you cast my soul away? 14, your wrath has swept over me. 16, they surround me like a flood all day long. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. That's how pretty much the psalm ends.

Now in the middle of it, there are some things in verse 13. But I, oh Lord, cry to you. That's important because when we were looking at this this morning, we were looking at verse six. But before I read that, Jeff, if you would read Psalm 20, verse seven.

Now I have two things on my desk in the morning when I do my quiet time. I have my psalm of the week, and then I have a pack of cards that over time, when I see a verse and it's like I really like this verse, I write it, and that pack just gets thicker and thicker, and every day I just read the next one.

It's incredible how often that pack of cards has a verse that applies to what I'm meditating on out of a psalm. So yesterday I had verse six, and then my pack had 20, verse seven.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some trust in chariots, some in horses, we trust in the name of the Lord our God. And here we have a lament where it's just over and over and over again, my situation is harsh, my situation is harsh. And in verse six, you have put me in the depths of the pit.

Now I wanted to emphasize an important observation to this. How does the psalmist end up in the depths of the pit? According to that verse.

What's his historical context.

For Saul chasing him at the time?

Okay, let's just go to the word. You put me, you put me there, you put me. There is such a confession and profession of the sovereignty of God there, that even though the conditions are, I'm in the pit, it's still God, it's still God.

And it's not you have abandoned me into the pit, it's like you have placed me in the pit. This is God's hand. Going back now to Psalm 20, verse seven. Some trust in horses, some in chariots, we trust in the Lord our God.

There are times in life where it feels like the pits. The reality is that God is sovereign. There was a episode that happened, I think it was this past weekend in Tennessee, where the school board had edicted that the schools and the, anybody in the administration, teachers, anybody associated, could not participate, much less lead, could not participate in prayers after football games.

So this football game transpires, and the players went out into the middle of the field after the game and led the stadium in prayer. Now, the reason I bring that up in text of all of this, there are obstacles that are put in our way.

God is sovereign. There are things that feel hard, and you either aren't going to surrender to those things that are hard, or you're gonna say, I have a sovereign God. And that's what these players did.

We're coming out of chapter 39. In Isaiah. What happened in chapter 39, Jeff?

Oh, you put me on the spot.

I put you on the spot. What did Hezekiah?

Hezekiah, rather than interceding for the future generations, the way he had interceded for himself, just was sort of like, eh, it's not gonna happen to me, so whatever, and he kind of flippantly just went with it.

It's a bleak moment in the nation of Israel. Hezekiah almost being a prototype of what's going on with the nation. We go directly from that, in the last verse of 39, big deal, I'm okay to bat on my sons, to chapter 40.

Comfort for God’s People After Judgment

To chapter 40, which is gonna start out with the word comfort. Comfort my people. So this is our transition, and as we get into verse 40, I learned this morning, Bob, that this is, I guess, one of your favorite chapters in the Bible.

It's a great one. That's where we're going to rest today, if we finish it. If not, we'll finish it next week. Pastor Jeff, could you open us with a prayer?

Yes, Father, thank you so much for this word that we have to read today. We thank you that you have spoken through the mouths of prophets, like Isaiah, for our instruction, and they were looking forward to things that we now see in full.

We have the reality, we have Christ, and him crucified and risen from the dead. They were looking forward to that.

Through a shadow.

And we thank you, Lord, for all that we have studied so far, and we pray now as we move into the second half of the book, 40 to 66, Lord, that you would have a special blessing on us now as we persevere through the text and learn and grow and enjoy and delight in your word.

So speak to us now. It is sweeter to us than honey, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Pastor, give me verses one through eight, and I'm going to assign a couple of verses that I would like to have read. I'll speak to the others. Ralph, if you can get Hosea two, you can see it on the third one down up top, and then John 1, 14.

Little Ricky, if you would have John 1, 14. I'll have that ready. So give me verses one to eight.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice says, cry, and I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

All right, coming out of chapter 39, Hezekiah, he basically reveals the hardness of his heart. But as we're in chapter 39, because of the things that he has done, there's bad times coming. And the prophecies throughout Isaiah, there's bad times coming.

The significance as we get into this is that although the self-centeredness, the pride of Hezekiah, these are the people, yet from before the foundation of the earth, God promises that his love will prevail.

This becomes the strength of this chapter and why this transition can be made. The first two verses, come for comfort, my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Now, we're coming out of, again, chapter 39.

It's not tenderly to Jerusalem, but there is a promise of mercy and there's a promise of God's hand. Some observations about Judah, about the city of Jerusalem at this time, you can read it into it. One of them is that Jerusalem is guilty of transgression against God.

That's what they are at this time. And it's going to get worse. Eventually, they will desecrate the temple. The Shekinah glory will leave, but there is transgression at the heart of who they are. Because of their transgression, what do they deserve?

Judgment. And judgment will come in the form of punishment as evidenced by the exile. Their warfare is ended, it says, in the middle of verse two. The concept of what's going to happen is, so this book is written some 115 years, 116 years, before they actually go into exile.

All right, there's going to be a downward spiral. The Assyrians are going to continue their assault. Eventually, the Assyrians are defeated. Babylon takes over, and the intensity. And eventually, they get taken captive.

They get brought out into exile. And they're going there because of their sin. And they're going there because God needs to purge and cleanse his people. This is the warfare that they're experiencing.

And it says here that the warfare has ended. And so God then is promising comfort. There's going to be an end of the conflict. And it says that he has received double for all of sins. And again, what's happening here is the punishment that is going to be meted out will be completed, and God's restoration will be experienced.

You can think of the story of Job. What happened to Job?

He lost everything, all his kids.

He got wiped out.

But.

But, thank you, but. Go ahead, whatever you get that word, something's going to happen, but.

But, God came and replaced everything for us.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

And he never cursed the Lord.

And he never, never.

Unlike his wife.

By the way, the shortest man in the Bible is in the book of Job. Bill, dad, the shoe height.

Shoe height.

Shorter than Nehemiah, okay.

Shorter than. Just not him.

Yeah.

The wee little man. Now, the nation of Israel is going into exile. The nation is going to be judged. Deuteronomy 28, verses 49 to 52 proclaims that when you don't, he said, I am going to send a nation, and she will be.

She will. She will. They will be besieged, and they will be taken away. These were all truths. These were all proclamations of God that the nation ignored, and so they went down that path. And then in verse 39, verses five to seven, according to the word of the Lord, God would send the people into exile.

All will be taken. This has to happen, and this will happen. And then the transition now is that there is a time of comfort, comfort. The warfare, the tribulation, the trials will end. Hosea 2, 14 to 17, please.

Therefore, I am now going to a war. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back the vineyards and will make the valley of Acre a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband. You will no longer call me my master. I will remove the names of the vows from her lips. No longer will their names be encoded.

We get into a challenge as we're reading that out of Hosea, as we're reading this out of Isaiah. When does this happen? I can say that there are three mountain peaks of when this could happen. The first would be potentially, under Ezra, under Nehemiah, they get to return to the land.

They're given out of Cyrus the decree that they could return. And that's one potential mountain peak because the trials of being in exile will come to an end. God had promised to the prophet, God had promised to Daniel, all right?

I'm sorry, in Jeremiah, and Daniel is reading it, it's 70 years, and praying, okay, so that's one mountain peak of a completing. As we get into now in verse three, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, or make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

There's a real strong reference to the first coming of the Messiah.

John the Baptist.

John the Baptist, absolutely, because it's actually quoted. So there's a link back into here. There is a cry, there is an exhortation to prepare the way. What way needs to be prepared?

The Messiah's arrival.

The Messiah's arrival, and so what preparations are needed, should occur?

Repentance.

Repentance, it's a way of the heart. It's a pushing away of the things that got them there in the first place, prepare the way in the heart. But it does also go into here, it says every valley shall be lifted, every mountain a hill made low, uneven ground shall become level, where the obstacles, the physical obstacles are actually removed.

There is a reference to the millennial time, where the ability for the people to come back into the land where we know Christ will reign on the throne for a thousand years. So there are potentially three mountain peaks coming out of exile.

The coming of the Messiah, the first coming, the second coming, and the introduction of the millennial reign. In any event, what we have here is God telling his people, comfort, comfort my people.

It's coming.

It's coming. All right, so quick application. You're in a time of distress, you're in a time of trial, you're in a time of the pit where I have, he has put me in the depths of the pit. These things happen.

We know the sovereignty of God and God can and he lovingly does bring us out of that. We do know that there is the Messiah and that resolves, we become a new creation. All things have passed away, all things have become new.

We have the ability. He gives us the Holy Spirit, he gives us grace, we have that ability. But even this is only partial because we're justified completely and we're only being sanctified. And for us to fully experience God is a process.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God is in the beatitudes. Those moments where you willingly, volitionally are going into sin, there's a problem, okay? There is a time when this all gets corrected.

Now for us, it's when we return to glory. Our brother Rich is experiencing that right now. These are things that are going to happen. Now, John 1 .14, you got that, Rich?

John 1 .14, yes. And the Word became flesh and grew up among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father.

Full of grace and truth.

Grace and truth. Verse five in Isaiah 40 says, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. Now, this becomes, again, the question. It says that the glory of the Lord is coming.

It comes in the person of Jesus. When the nation comes out of captivity, they could only be looking ahead. Because it hadn't happened yet. But their faith in anticipation of this Messiah that would come is solid for them.

It says here that all flesh shall see it together. John 1 .11 says, he came to his own, but his own received him not. So even at the coming of the first Messiah, all flesh did not see. They perceived with their eyes, but they did not accept what they were seeing.

It says, and earlier in Isaiah, there will be a time when every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess. And so the reality of who he is, Jesus, is Lord, is yet to come. But then it says in verses six, so read that again for me, please.

A voice says, cry. And I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

That is one of my favorite verses in scripture. Grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Now, what we have here is the prophet is proclaiming. It says, cry. And he says, well, what should I cry?

Remember that what we've got here is 116 years before they were gonna go into captivity. And so his crying out these things, it's like, well, when? It doesn't seem to be happening. Pastor Jeff has spoken incredibly strongly about everything that has to do with scripture.

No apologies given whatsoever. And one of them being the woke culture and critical race theory, social justice. And there are those who are opposing against him, and it doesn't feel like, right now, his voice can carry.

But it does, and the reason I say that it does is the end of verse eight. The word of our God will stand forever. And so when truth is proclaimed, it's forever. Because it was forever, and it will be forever, and it's founded on truth, the things that are being taught right now are here for a season, they're gone for a while.

They're like the grass of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. Like the mist of the air. And the mist of the air. Yeah, absolutely, you go into the song of the psalm. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity, except for truth.

And so the prophet is told here to proclaim the word. Now, remember where he is at this time. Hezekiah has just gotten some bad news. The nation is not in obedience. And now he's told, proclaim, comfort, comfort, comfort my people.

And he says, proclaim this word in the midst of the settlement. And then times are only gonna get worse to where they get besieged by the Babylonians. Then times are gonna get worse. They're gonna go into captivity.

Yet the word is, comfort, comfort my people. Speak tenderly and cry to her. Your warfare is ended. Your iniquity is pardoned. And at the end of verse eight, the word of our God will stand forever. This is the promise that the people would need to hold on to.

The Good News of the Coming Messiah

Give us verses nine through 11, please.

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him.

Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.

We are told, Jerusalem is told, go out and proclaim the good news. Bob, I'm gonna ask if you would have Hebrews 13 ready and Barb, if you would have 2 Peter 2 ready. They're told to go out and to proclaim good news.

Now, the nation has been judged and the nation is going to be, they're going to go into exile and all this other stuff. They've been judged, but they haven't been rejected. They've been judged, but they haven't been rejected.

There are times where my behavior, where my decisions clearly are not pleasing to God and God will need to purge me. God will, blessed are those who the Lord chastens. For whom he loves, he chastens, right?

What son doesn't, he chasten. Just because God is chastening me doesn't mean he's rejected me. Just because God is gonna chasten Israel, he has not rejected them. In fact, I think we go into the book of Revelation and who ends up coming back in the book of Revelation?

Israel.

All 12 tribes, all 12 tribes. Not just Judah and the half tribe of Benjamin, all 12 tribes are gonna come back because God has said so, you are my people. And it says the word of the Lord stands forever.

Even the lost tribes.

That's what I just said. Yeah, the 10 lost tribes, they're coming back. That's pretty awesome. So Jerusalem is told to go out and spread this good news and don't be afraid. Just go out and herald the good news.

I think of a couple of chapters ago, was it when Sennacherib comes in? He comes in, not Sennacherib, Rapshaka comes in and he's hollering, he's hollering at the people. Well, okay, these are true because he's got this strength about himself, but there is a better God.

There is the only God. The message is, behold, the Lord is coming. The end of verse nine. Say to the cities of Judah, uphold your God. There is a focus, there is a reality, there is a perception of things that are going on here and now.

They can be very discouraging, they can be overwhelming, they can even distract us. The message is, behold your God. When difficulties come, when persecution comes, behold your God. And then you can look at, you have put me in the depths of the pit and you can say, my God is sovereign.

He put me there, he still has his hand on me and you can be there with that. Psalm 23 says, God is my shepherd. There's nothing I need. God is my shepherd. And it says that God is coming and according to this, he's coming with might, he's coming to rule, he's coming with a reward, he is the shepherd and he gently leads us.

Now this section really appears to be more like millennial than even coming out of exile and even the first coming of the Messiah. We hold true to the fact that all of this stuff has happened and that millennial reign is real and it is coming, yes?

You can see that millennial perception.

Right at the beginning.

In verse one where it says, for warfare, I said it won't end until the morning.

Correct, correct, yeah. And that is a true statement. This word warfare here actually speaks more to their judgment and their punishment. But yes, warfare is also true and even the punishment hasn't ended yet.

I was blown away a couple of weeks ago and I try to remember where I heard it. I think it was with, was it with Phil Rizzo? I don't remember. What country has the highest rate of abortion?

China?

Was it Australia?

Was it Israel?

Israel. Israel, really? Oh, I don't know, it's populated,.

In relation to its population.

Israel.

There's still a sin there. God still needs to be dealing with China.

China has 330.

Well, okay, the greatest number, but the proportional number. Hebrews 11, 13, Bob?

Yep, 13, 20. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.

This is, again, continuing on the promise. Have you gotten to this one yet or am I stealing your thunder?

No, go ahead.

You got it. It can be repeated.

It can be repeated. The power and the assurity behind this verse is the blood of Christ. It is, it always is, from before the foundation of the world, it's going to be the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 2? 225.

Please, 225.

For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Is that a comfort?

God sees us. And it's not that you better be walking the, no, God knows that we are like sheep who go astray. And he tenderly, as a good shepherd, calls us back into his realm, into his kingdom. Let's talk about the supremacy of God.

The Supremacy of God Over Creation and Nations

Give me verses 12 to 17, please.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are counted by him as less than nothing, an emptiness.

The supremacy of God. When God created, how did he do it?

Out of nothing.

Everything, on my notes. Here it says, what?

Ex nihilo.

What does that mean?

Out of nothing.

Out of nothing.

Come on, do you really believe that?

Yes. I do.

Psalm 33, six says, by the word of the Lord,.

The heavens were created,.

And by his breath, the host of them. So his breath and word aren't nothing. I think Augustine got it wrong there.

Interesting.

All right, well, let's just play with that for just a minute.

There was nothing material.

Nothing material. He didn't organize pre-existing matter. He spoke the matter itself.

And you're right, his method was from himself, from his word, but there was absolutely nothing.

That's interesting.

That is.

That's why I was writing my doctoral thesis on.

God's creation.

I was countering Augustine, you know, I'm hecka thrilled. I don't know if I'm gonna turn it in, but I might publish it as a book.

Good for you.

This section has a rhetorical question asked over and over again in various forms. Who has, who has, who did, who taught? It's like, the answer is clear. No, it was just God. He needed nothing. Who measured and marked it off?

I mean, you're almost rereading Job at the end of that.

I think it works, it talks more about his vast power.

Great he is.

Yeah, he's so vast.

Yeah, he measured the waters. The waters on the earth are just in the hollow of his hand. All these waters and oceans that we have.

Okay, I gotta rabbit trail for just a minute because I can't help myself. The engineering me just came out.

Yes.

I firmly stand on the New Earth theology. I firmly stand on six, 24-hour periods of time. That's my theology, okay? I also, I believe in science, and light travels at 186 ,000 miles per second.

282 miles.

Per second.

Per second.

I was just going to say that.

Yeah.

Me too.

And I firmly believe that the Hubble telescope finds stars that are supposedly billions of light years away, and so now my mind has to try to reconcile these two. If I am believing firmly in a literal 6 ,000 years, 24 hour, how could that star have been there billions of light years away for the light to come here?

And so my answer to that is my God who created everything also created light waves that would arrive and make us think that it's out there. Anyway, that's my God. I think that God is over all.

Yeah.

Easy for him.

They take the universe as 14 billion light years.

How did they know 14? But still, it's like a speck of dust on God's face.

Thank you, it is.

God didn't require any consultation or assistance when it came to having, make decisions about, oh, why do we have, we were talking about no-see-ums.

Yes.

I have to remember that everything we talk about.

Will come up, I love that.

We were talking about no-see-ums the other day.

Solomon said that.

What's that?

Solomon said that.

What happened yesterday happens today.

Or what happened yesterday, right?

It all comes back.

Oh, yeah, yeah, it all circles, yeah.

I don't understand the need for a no-see-um, but he didn't have to ask me, he was God. He consulted with nobody.

He consulted with nobody.

Now, that being said, I do like the term you've used recently, devolution.

Yes.

Because after the fall, sin entered and all of creation is actually developed. It's actually the second law of thermodynamics. Without external influence, a contained system finds its own level of disorder.

That's actually the second law.

That's by evolution, not tension.

We're not going up, we're going down.

Totally nonsensical. Now, here's the thing. If you read this, this little section here just puts a big old mark against mankind who tries to remove the impact of God. They, Satan cannot abide by having God as the authority, God as the influence, God even as continuing to be involved.

And so, creation has to be changed and the lies will just continue off of that. I will make myself like the most high with Satan's cry. And this passage even says nations are nothing before him. We read the news and I guess rightly so, we get distressed over what is potentially happening in Afghanistan and we grieve over the atrocities, women, what's going to be happening to them.

We do, we grieve over all of this. We do have to pray for that. But nations are nothing in comparison to God. He sets up kings, he tears them down. It says that all nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness, our God, our God is supreme over all.

Psalm 24 says that the earth is the Lord's and all who dwell in it, Psalm 24, verse one. In Psalm 22, verse 28, the kingdom is the Lord.

He rules over all.

This is our supreme God. Revelations 4 .11, Chris, would you get Revelations 4 .11 for me? When God created, he created ex nihilo, he needed nothing, he used nothing, he did not require help, but man is going to do what he can to change that equation.

When you have 4 .11, go ahead.

You know where I have the first problem with that?

It's right in Genesis, it's right in the beginning.

God created, it doesn't say God and nothing exists, it's just God exists.