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

and 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 always kind of fascinated me when you take the hair and you kind of break it out into three pieces and then one Goes over and then you can

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 thin.

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.

Did 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 there 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 All

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 the 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 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 there'd be photos of it and you know, and it

would have you know.

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.

And 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 and 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, you know, I Never 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?

You put 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 the 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?

Dressed 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.

And you could just see Job kind of all puckered up.

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 nations 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 nations 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 nations.

Yeah, they're nothing.

Yeah, you think Lebanon is something you think United States is something you think Russia has

got.

God all worried God says of the nations.

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 here.

You know 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 just think 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, 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 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 Savah 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 and 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 foot 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 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 you 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.

They 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 or 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 the 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 as 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 who helps you.

What a promise 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 In 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've 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.

Either 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 all they got to go first.

That's 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 you 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 when 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 my fingers.

Now 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.

We gotta fix this.

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 the despised 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.

This is the God who is.

This is our God we'll pick this up next week.