Worthless Idols

Let's pray and we will get into our text for today Lord Jesus again as we open up your word We thank you

Lord that you have revealed to us through your Apostle Peter that you are the one shining Right there in the text of Scripture and that we would do well to pay attention to it

So teach us Lord as we walk through these texts what it is that you have revealed what you would have us believe and do we?

Ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen All right we're still at Mount Sinai and We're still looking at the first commandment.

You will have no other gods We've been looking at this concept of the first commandment of you shall have no other gods

You will love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength. And what does this exactly mean?

And We've we've done some excursus on some kind of relevant topics as it pertains to difficulties in the church

But I want to do something a little bit more Foundational today and the thing I would like to do is answer the question.

What does it mean to actually have a God? What does it mean to have a

God as a Christian? What's so great about having a God?

What's so great about having this God and in order to answer the question? What I would like to do is walk through one of the more famous passages in the

Prophet Isaiah in his prophecy to us and in walking through this we're going to note how

God Himself reveals to us Just how awesome it is to truly have him as our

God and you're gonna note there that in Contrast one of the themes that God is going to be talking about is well the foolishness the vanity the

Worthlessness if you would almost the stupidity of Not having the one true.

God is your God Idolatry is one of these things that Scripture speaks very strongly against Now not in this passage, but in other passages of the

Old Testament God himself shows quite forcefully that he is militantly opposed to False gods and those who worship them and his favorite way one of his favorite ways of describing those who are unfaithful to him is he describes

Idolatry as a way well as well being a prostitute It's described as and I'm not making this up whoring after other gods whoring wh -o -r -i -n -g

Those are strong words, but where we pick up in our text today. We're gonna drop into part of Isaiah and it's important that we understand the kind of the context of what is

Being spoken and what the state of Israel is at this time and in the opening chapters of Isaiah Israel at this time is described as people who are religious

But they're religious in a way that's really dangerous. They just go through the motions

So they go and they every year they provide the required sacrifices

So you can say they go through the religious motions, but they don't really believe in God They don't really trust in him.

So outwardly They they tick off the boxes, but inwardly they're dead inwardly.

They're cold And as a result of this, I mean this is if you would the religion of Cain remember

Cain offered a sacrifice to God But he had no faith Same thing is going on and it's a little bit worse than that In Isaiah's time

Israel also was engaging in something called syncretism This is where you kind of hedge your bets.

So yeah, I worship Yahweh but you know to make you know, I also worship Baal a little bit of a

Shira and If things are going really bad, I haven't ruled Molech out of the equation

Moloch's a terrible deity by the way terrible and So this is what's going on and God here.

You're gonna note something in the way God is speaking to his people who are faithless and Rebelling against him.

What do you think God would do in a situation like that? First and foremost grab his flaming sword and have angel

Gabriel come and lop off their heads and fill the streets with their carcasses No, you're gonna see the patience and love of God and his restraint and as we walk through this

You're gonna see God Comparing himself in very vivid terms to the different idols that people have whether they be false gods or Who they trust in money or worse?

trusting in the government Trusting in their princes and in their Kings We have a tendency to do this in our own country and it's really nice right now because politics are so screwed up in the

United States. I don't know anybody in their right mind who would think don't worry. The US government's gonna solve everything

We at least we have that So with this, let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 40 and we're gonna work our way through a very large swath of this text and watch

God's words Comfort comfort my people says your

God Speak tenderly to Jerusalem Cry to her that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned

That she has received from the Lord's hand double double for all of her sins So the first words in this text out of the

Prophet's mouth are not words of condemnation not words of turn or burn

Instead God is showing his heart here for his people his wayward and sinful people and he wants to be able to speak words of comfort and to speak tenderly to Jerusalem and Then we get this wonderful prophecy regarding the

Prophet I The Prophet John the Baptist, he's the last of the prophets but you're gonna note here that there's a fascinating technique that God uses in this text and Rhian you do hair.

So, you know, I know nothing about hair, but I remember when I was a kid I've seen girls braid their hair

Okay It's always kind of fascinated me when you take the hair and you kind of break it out into three pieces and then one goes

And then it braids up, right What we're gonna see in this prophecy is that braided in to what

God is speaking To the people of Israel at the time of Isaiah is a strand that points to the

Messiah There's a piece of it that points directly to Jesus and then he kind of switches back and forth between the different strands

All right. So this is kind of a braided prophecy if you would so he says

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 every mountain and hill 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 So here we have a prophecy of John the

Baptist as well as mixed into it an eschatological prophecy this is regarding the end and You'll notice then that one of the things that scripture talks about when it talks about sin

It talks about sin in a way that it is a crooked path. It is a jagged road

It is something that needs to be straightened Something that is out of kilter that needs to be leveled and made flat

And so that's the way in which our sin is described And so when God is saying every valley shall be lifted up every mountain and hill made low the uneven ground should become level the rough

Place is a plain This is a description then of our own sin and how God's gonna smooth this out for us

And so we have the prophecy of John the Baptist and then listen to this verse 5 the glory of the

Lord Ah, we we saw the glory of the Lord in our tap in our text today We got a little peek at it.

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and watch this all Flesh shall see it together

This is eschatological There is a day coming When we will all see the glory of the

Lord and it will all see it at the same time together Nobody gets to go first We're all gonna see it together so this is talking about in the future for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken it and Let me ask you this if God says it

Is it gonna happen? Absolutely, and this is gonna be one of those pieces

And this prophecy as we work through it where God distinguishes himself from false gods number one

False gods. I don't know if you've noticed this about them. They are incapable of speaking Hmm and one of the things that God's going to challenge the false gods about is

They're not only their inability to speak but their inability to make their own words

Happen whereas when God speaks a thing he's able to literally kind of hover over his word To make it so that it happens the way he says right and he could do so centuries and even millennia ahead of time

So a voice says cry and I said this is Isaiah speaking what shall I cry All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field grass withers the flower fades

When the breath of Lord blows on it surely the people are grass the grass withers and the flower fades But the Word of our

God will stand forever Now in this room, we have some who are young in this room

We have some that are not so young in this room. We have some that have been around since the time of Noah.

I Will not point out anyone in particular, but those of us who've been on the planet a few more years

We sit there and go. Hmm. My glory is fading quickly You know,

I am NOT spelt like I used to be None of that and This is the way of men and the thing is is that as we get older we get tired

We get worn out and this this is something that we not only see when we look in the mirror and go ha we see this in our inability to do the things that we used to do when we were young and So all of this is pointing to with the fact that well

We're not we cannot put our trust in our youth At all. So notice the contrast is this is where God begins this little contrast game all of you people

Oh your glory fades like the grass and boy, does it happen quick? Like that, oh, but the

Word of the Lord that's gonna stand forever it never seems to go away does it Of course it doesn't go up verse 9 to a high mountain

Oh Zion herald of good news Lift up your voice with strength

Oh 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

His arm rules for him behold. His reward is with him and his recompense is before him

Now watch the contrast 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 So here we have

God depicted as mighty as Powerful and what do you do with might and power?

You know what he does with it He gently cares for his sheep and even the weakest

It's an interesting picture. Now. There's a story told about me when I was a tyke

You know a toddler and I don't remember it. I have no memory of it But the story goes something like this my grandparents were coming from New York to visit me in Los Angeles and spend some time with my parents because they wanted some grandparent time

I was the grandchild so I was a toddler and my grandparents they flew from JFK to LAX and I went with my dad to pick them up from the airport and While we were waiting for them to get off the airplane.

You can go up to the gate at that point We were inside of LAX and Wilt Chamberlain was there in the airport and I'm you know like this tall right and Wilt Chamberlain walks by and I go dad look a giant and Wilt Chamberlain heard me say that and I was a little

I was a little shaken by him and he asked if it would be okay, if he picked me up and I trepidatiously said, uh -huh and Wilt Chamberlain picked me up and He showed me around.

He said how's it look from up here? and That's the story, right?

And of course I have no memory of it and this is before they had Smartphones because if they had smartphones would be photos of it and you know

And it would have you know made the you know been big on social media, but that's the story And so I want you to kind of think of it this way.

This is a similar picture Here God is Describing himself as mighty muscular having arms and biceps and strength and all this kind of stuff

And what is he going to do? He's this gentle giant Who's gonna gather up his sheep hold them in his arm and those who are weakest and those who have young?

He's going to tenderly care for them. It's amazing picture, isn't it?

and so this kind of begins to get at the question of Well, what does it mean to have a

God? What does it mean to have this God? You see this God isn't like the other gods

The false gods number one he exists, but if you think of kind of how the transactions work when it comes to idolatry you

Go and you have a problem in your life and you seek the face of the deity

The deity says can't help you until you do your part So what do you do you offer a sacrifice kill one of your children, you know?

You do something right in order to earn that God's favor and to earn his blessing

That's how the transaction works This God is not talking in these terms he's literally like a husband going after a wayward wife

To get her to turn so that she once again Can be the object of his affection and return that in fact affection in return you see what

I'm saying totally different perspective altogether So he will tend his flock like a shepherd

He will gather the lambs in his arms this big mighty muscular God He will carry them in his bosom gently lead those who are with young huh, interesting contrast and then

God Starts to make a note about well the creation itself.

He's making a point He asked the question who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand marked off the heavens with a span

Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills and a balance

Interesting picture, isn't it? And so God is having us picture him as so powerful and so large

That the things that are ginormous to us mountains lakes and Continents and all this kind of stuff.

Yeah They were I had them right here, you know, we measured them boy. They came up kind of not very heavy

You know, right and so this is the picture that God is painting of himself consider this about God All right, who has measured the

Spirit of the Lord and or what man has shown him counsel so in contrast Okay, so here's the

God who's measured The heavens with a span and closed the dust of the earth weighed the mountains and he asked the questions

Well contrarily who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel Whom did he consult and who made him understand?

he puts your trust in your own reason and your own abilities and This has kind of an echo if you would of what we hear

God say to Job Remember what God says to Job when God finally speaks.

Let me see if I could pull that up really quick I think we're in Job 38

So if you know the story of Job Job was made to suffer Job 38 Job was made to suffer

Because of his great love of the Lord and how God has blessed him and the devil didn't want anything to do with that thought that the devil that Job would curse

God if he were put through major suffering and along the way

Job is comforted by his comforters with really bad theology and Job has some questions that he is wants to ask

God as to why he's made to suffer and God finally speaks and The Lord answered

Job out of the whirlwind. I would think that The Hebrew there is probably closer to the concept of one of those big thunderstorms that rolls through, you know

Supercell coming through God's speaking to Job out of that and God says to him

Who is it that darkens counsel by words without knowledge

Dress for action like a man. I will question you and so you make it known to me

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements surely, you know who stretched the line upon it on What were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone?

When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy

Or who shut in the seas with doors when it burst out from the womb when

I made clouds its garment and thick darkness It's swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far

You shall come and no farther and here shall your proud waves be stayed You could just see

Job kind of all puckered up Mmm It'd be best if I not answer any of these questions and So this is this is kind of our cross -reference to what we're seeing here

Who has measured the waters in the hollows of his hand God is revealing something about himself

Something and in contrast he's contrasting His wisdom his power in his might with human vanity and human belief

That somehow we know better than God Yet God asked the question

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 no human being has taught this to God Behold the nation's are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as dust on the scales

Behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust Lebanon would not suffice for fuel

Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering all the nation's are is nothing before him They're accounted by him as less than nothing in emptiness the

God Who measured all of these things before he put them in knows the exact distance of the universe itself literally

Caused it to spread out to those points Snap the measuring line before he laid the foundations of the earth this

God says of the nation's Yeah, they're nothing Yeah, you think

Lebanon is something you think the United States is something you think Russia has got

God all worried God says of the nation's they're like dust on the scale.

Hang on. Let me get that out. Yeah. Yeah there now It's gone This is how he talks and so who are you gonna put your trust in the nation's princes kings

Who you gonna believe in so you notice he's dealing with different types of idolatry here verse 18 to whom?

Will you liken God? Or what likeness compare him with an idol?

You know a cast a craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast it

Silver chains he who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot

He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not

Move how on earth can you compare? Yahweh to an idol the idol can't move the idol can't speak the idol can't think the idol can't do

Anything and God is showing that he Thinks he does he moves he acts and his very name

Yahweh Means that he is So you would exchange?

the God who is For an idol that can't do anything you see the concept

Do you not know? Do you not hear Has it not been told from to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth it is? He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers so much for the flat earth by the way

Yeah, God here says the earth is of what? Circle It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its habitants are like grasshoppers

Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain who spreads them like a tent to dwell in who brings

Princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness Not only do the idols not do anything, but God like does everything

He sits above the circle of the earth and he sees us you ever been in on an airplane

You just love looking down and seeing all the tiny little cards and stuff like that yeah, that's God's perspective over us and he's the one who brings princes to Nothing and we can add to the list presidents and parliamentarians and congressmen and senators and Name the person right?

He brings them to nothing Makes the rulers of the earth is emptiness Scarcely are they planted scarcely stone scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when

God blows on them And they wither and The tempest carries them off like stubble see the comparisons.

They're wonderful So to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him says the

Holy One Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these now. He's pointing to the stars And in the ancient world in the time of Isaiah, just like today people look at the stars and what do they think?

Oh The stars have determined my fate I was born under the sign of a crab and therefore that means

I'm cranky I don't know what that means. I'm just saying, you know, I was born under the sign of the bull

Which means I'm stubborn and I don't know nothing and my wife says amen. Amen and So what are they thinking that the stars somehow are determining our fate and future

God says Lift up your eyes and see who created these pointing to the stars He who brings out their host and host here savah means army

Who brings out their army by number? Calling them all by name

In other words, you see those stars. Yeah, listen, let's talk about the one who created them He has them all named like little pet animals

Yeah, this one I named this one this one I named that and this is how God talks about these things Yeah God already has names for these stars.

I don't know what they're named. Yeah, you you get in the International Star Registry.

I Would love that, you know sometime in the late future, you know in the year 2766 you know some poor explorers.

I'm now in orbit around Starbase Roseboro Hated that guy.

Yeah It's The armpit of the universe anyway

So God says he who brings out the Savah by number the army by number.

Have you ever heard the phrase regarding God the title Yahweh Savio? Yeah, yeah some of you have

Yahweh Savio the God of armies So when you hear the term the

God of hosts Sava is army he who brings out the army by number calls them by name by the greatness of his is might and Because he is strong in power.

Not one is missing and This is a very polite way of saying yeah, listen, they don't have any they don't exert any authority over you whatsoever

Let's talk about the one who has named them all and knows that not a single one is missing

Anyone want to count these all up It's beginning to sound a lot like there's some some practical benefit to having a

God At least the one who is So why do you say Oh Jacob and speak

Oh Israel? My way is hidden from Yahweh and my right is this is disregarded by my

God Is there any place that you can go where God isn't?

Is there any place that you can hide where he cannot see you? Does God play hide -and -seek with you

Have you not known? Have you not heard the Lord is ever the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary Huh, we all do that even the youngest among us his

Understanding is unsearchable and listen to this this God. He gives power to the faint

Into him who has no might He increases strength

Even youths shall faint And be weary and young men shall be exhausted

But they who wait on Yahweh shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles

They shall run and not be weary They shall walk not faint

God is literally promising here For those who trust in the

Lord All of that strength and might and power that he has infinitely

He says I'm going to give you my strength and I'm going to renew yours because God's giving it away for free here and they want money and so notice

Notice here, are you faint? Are you weary? Are you exhausted?

Yeah God says don't worry. I'm gonna give you my strength.

I'm gonna renew yours You are gonna mount up with wings like eagles. You will run and not be weary.

You shall walk and not faint Yeah Okay, that's a different story altogether.

But when we talk about near -death experiences, one of the things fascinating read history Read history.

There's over and over and over and over again through the centuries Account after account after account of people who near death

Going up to death. They were not lucid. They were out of their mind and right before they die.

There's a moment of clarity Fascinating what you're describing is a universal phenomenon

Shelby Foote in his Series on the Civil War. Yes. I'm a nerd.

Okay he describes The death of Stonewall Jackson you all familiar with who

Stonewall Jackson was crazy eccentric Christian fellow who would never let his army fight on Sunday because he didn't want to break the

Sabbath and but he would march them into the ground the next day and the guy was it like I mean he thought he was

Invincible and he fought in such a way that the Union Army just if they knew they were up against Stonewall Jackson's forces

Oh, man, they were praying their last prayers and they knew it. But what ended up happening I think after the

Battle of Chancellorsville, I could be wrong on the battle. He was out inspecting his lines and it was dusk and one of his own men shot him took his arm off took his arm off and medical

Technology wasn't where it was today. They didn't have antibiotics and things like that And so he went and had his arm removed and you know, he was

Convalescing and it looked like things were getting better for him He was on the men's and then it took a severe turn turns out

He had a major infection got pneumonia and as he got worse and worse

What would ended up happening is is that when he was not lucid his brain was fevered

They didn't have a way of bringing the the fevers down. So when he would go into a fever He he could tell mentally he would go right into battle he'd say bring up a

P Hills forces get those cannons you fill that guy's barking out orders like you wouldn't believe and And so he would come in and out of lucidity and when he wasn't lucid he was in the battlefield in his mind and you know so much so he was vocalizing it and he came out of you know one of those periods and His wife said to him

The doctor says that you must die today He said well what day is it? Sunday That's a good day to die.

It's a good day to die and sure enough like the doctor said because he was he was near the end as the day went forward he went again into a major fever and He was in battle and literally no joke as he was barking out orders.

He just stopped He said no wait Let us cross over the river

And rest in the shade of the trees And those were his last words and he died fascinating stuff

Those who wait on the Lord They will renew their strength They will mount up with wings like Eagles They will walk they will run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not be faint There's a promise

And the promise is for the faint the exhausted the weary That's us

Notice that God doesn't promise these things to the strong Because there's none strong among us 41

Listen to me in silence so coastlands, but the people's renew their strength Let them approach and then let them speak

Let us together draw near for judgment Who is stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step

He gives up nations before him so that he tramples Kings underfoot He makes them like dust with a sword like driven stubble with his bow

This is talking about how God raises up Kings and people to judge other nations

And in this case kind of like something like Nebuchadnezzar to judge Israel he pursues them

Passes on safely by paths his feet have not trod who has performed and done this calling the generations from the beginning

I the Lord the first and with the last I am

He good better translation of the Hebrew. I am And what's fascinating just do the comparative work here.

This is exactly how Jesus talks This is how he talks about himself. This is literally how he argues in the

Sermon on the Mount Why do you worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to wear do not the

Gentiles seek after these things Consider the lilies of the field Solomon and all of his splendor was never clothed like any of these yet They're like the grass.

They're here today and tomorrow they're put into the fire Are you of not more value than they are or consider the sparrows?

They neither sow nor reap yet your Heavenly Father feeds them And are you not of more value than they owe you of little faith

The coastlands have seen and are afraid the ends of the earth tremble

They've drawn near and come Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother be strong the craftsman strengthens a goldsmith and he who smooths with a hammer him who?

Strikes the anvil saying of the soldering it is good And they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

But you Oh Israel my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham my friend and here comes that part of the braid

It's messianic Woven right into the middle of this You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from as far this corner saying to you

You are my servant. I have chosen you and will not cast you off fear Not I am with you be not dismayed for I am your

God. I will strengthen you and I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand behold all who are incensed against you they shall be put to shame and Confounded those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish

You shall seek those who contend with you But you shall not find them those who war against you shall be as nothing at all for I Yahweh your

God hold your right hand it is I who say to you Fear not.

I am the one and this applies to us today

We hear the Lord speaking this to Israel fear not I am with you Don't worry about those who contend against you and Jesus in a similar way

Promises us that because they persecuted him we will be persecuted But don't fear them

The God who created everything who's named all of the stars The one who measured the oceans in the hollows of his hand.

He is with you fear not those who contend against you there is a day coming when you will look for them and You will never be able to find them.

There is nothing to him. What does it mean to have a God? What does it mean to have this

God as your God? It means everything Now watch the contrast in this next part verse 14 fear not you worm

Jacob you men of Israel Notice God is literally saying of Israel.

You're a worm now Have any of you ever seen that amazing book about the history of the great exploit of worms?

It'd be a short book All of its maybe a pamphlet Come to think of it.

They haven't really done much Okay, worms are not known for their mighty strength and their great exploits, but watch what

God says to this worm. I Am the one who helps you you worm declares the

Lord your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge

Now what's a threshing sledge? Sounds like a farm implement, but you know think of it like something that tears up the soil, right?

So I go from being a worm to being a threshing sledge. How about a John Deere and watch what we do

New sharp having teeth you shall thresh the mountains and crush them

You shall make the hills like chaff You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away and the tempest shall scatter them and you shall rejoice in Yahweh And the

Holy One of Israel you shall Glory what a picture we go from being worms to being threshing sledges

It's not being able to do anything to literally tearing up mountains and turning them into chaff now granted.

This is poetic talk but this hints at hints at What it's going to be like to be alive in the new earth with strength that never

Fades Because it's not ours. It's given to us by God The ability to do things that no worm can do

Because we have been transformed by God himself the Holy One of Israel When the poor and the needy seek water and there is none

And their tongue is parched with thirst. I Yahweh will answer them.

I the God of Israel will not forsake them Have you noticed here

God's complete obsession with those who are weak? thirsty needy

Broken exhausted you do realize that before you realize you need this

God That's where you need to get and the reality is all of us are already there

It's just that so many of us Played the denial game. I'm fine.

It's a mere flesh wound money Python I the

Lord will answer them. I the God of Israel. I will not forsake them I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys

I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. This is

Exodus talk Did he not do this? Just a few weeks ago when we read it in Exodus the split rock of Horeb I will put in the wilderness the cedar the acacia the myrtle and the olive

I will set in the desert the cypress the plain the pine together that they may see and know may consider and understand together that the hand of the

Lord has done this the Holy One of Israel has created it So set forth your case

Says the Lord So now God goes to court God has put on His judge robes and also take them off to play attorney, too

So set forth your case says Yahweh bring your proofs says the King of Jacob let them bring them and tell us

What is to happen? Tell us the former things what they are so that we may consider them

Knows what God's challenging here. You don't have any memory of the former things. Do you?

You weren't even here and While you're at it Since you're gonna tell us about the former things.

Why don't you tell us about what's gonna happen next? See if you can predict the future Tell us the former things what they are that we may consider them and that we may know their outcome or declare to us the

Things that are to come Tell us what's to come hereafter so that we may know that you are

God's Do good or do harm do something.

Oh I forgot you can't do anything So that we may be dismayed and terrified behold you are nothing your work is less than nothing an

Abomination is he who chooses you? So you'll notice

God doesn't play nice with false gods he actually mocks them

He taunts them Come on do something This is

Elijah on Mount Carmel Elijah on Mount Carmel There's the prophets of Baal.

They got to go first. It was a huffle sporting of him You guys go ahead and go first. So there they are the

God who answers from heaven. He's the true God So you call on but all I'm gonna call on Yahweh go first and there they are.

They've made their sacrifice ready Oh Listen to us

But there was nothing There was no answer at all. And so what does

Elijah do the text says he mocked them Cry louder.

He is a God isn't he? Maybe he's on a journey Maybe he needs to be awoken

Maybe he's taking a dump. That's what the text says and I cleaned it up Okay, it actually says that is in the

ESV. It says maybe he's relieving himself really the Hebrews way more graphic than that Okay, he's in the little room.

He go Can you do can you talk like that? Well God does

Don't you want to be godly? Okay And then

God says verse 24 again behold you false gods You are nothing your work is less than nothing and an abomination is he who chooses you

You see wouldn't kind of spelled out this way idolatry seems kind of like a really foolish choice

I Stirred up one from the north and he has come from the rising of the Sun. He shall call upon my name he shall trample on rulers as on mortar as The Potter treads clay who declared it from the beginning that we might know and beforehand that we might say he is right

There was none who declared it none who proclaimed none who heard that your words I was the first to say to Zion behold here

They are and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news But when

I look there is no one among them among these there is no counselor Who when

I ask gives an answer behold? They're a delusion Their works are nothing

Their metal images are empty wind the person who worships such a thing is

Delusional The Lord has spoken this All paths lead to Yahweh.

I don't think so Behold my servant whom

I uphold My chosen and whom my soul delights. I've put my spirit upon him

He will bring forth justice to the nations He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street a bruised reed

He will not break and a faintly burning wick. He will not quench He will faithfully bring forth justice

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established Justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

This is preaching about Jesus and again, notice Yahweh's obsession with the poor the needy the exhausted the broken the weak and It says of Christ a bruised reed.

He will not break So you come to Jesus and you are broken from the inside out and a bruised reed is worthless

Not good for anything and Jesus doesn't say just snap it off already

No, that's not what he says What good is a candle?

That it's burnt down to the bottom and it's just kind of a smoldering little wick. What good is that?

When Jesus sees that what does he do? Hang on, let me look at my fingers Yeah, that's solved the problem.

No You see you're the bruised reed. I'm the bruised reed

You're the faintly burning wick and Jesus doesn't say worthless send it away.

Oh I'm not gonna blow this candle out. I'm gonna protect it. I'll find a way to fan it back into flame

It can't do it by itself. It can't do it at all This is describing the heart of God Again I ask the question

What good is it to have a God? What good is it to have this

God when you listen to what he says about himself and how practical he is on his own?

terms To have this God is to have everything To not have him is to have nothing

Actually, it's to have less than nothing you will have no other gods before me

This is the God who cares for the weak to despise the lowly the broken the smoldering

He doesn't despise them. He cares for them and he loves them and he will carry them in his arms his strong and mighty arms