WWUTT 2064 Yahweh Creates Peace and Calamity (Isaiah 45:1-10)

Yahweh’s Sovereignty Revealed Through Cyrus

God declared through Isaiah of the things he was going to do for Israel so that they would know that he is sovereign and he is in control. And those are reminders that we need daily when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Isaiah, which we've been doing on Thursday, we are up to chapter 45 this week. We're in the midst of a section, chapters 40 to 48, where God proclaims his sovereignty and rebukes Israel for their idolatry.

Remember that all of this has been written prior to the Babylonian captivity, but what we read about here in this section is as if they are in that captivity, so that they will know God is the one who has ordained all of this to happen.

The punishment that has come upon them and even has arranged for their deliverance so that they would know that he reigns and he alone is worthy of our worship. So let me start here in chapter 45, verse 1.

I'm going to read through verse 10 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Thus says Yahweh to Cyrus, his anointed, whom I have taken hold of by his right hand, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut.

I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places so that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

For the sake of Jacob, my servant, and Israel, my chosen one, I have also called you by your name. I have given you a title of honor, though you have not known me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other. Besides me there is no God.

I will gird you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other. The one forming light and creating darkness, producing peace and creating calamity, I am Yahweh who does all of these.

Drip down, O heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up, and salvation bear fruit, and righteousness spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it. Woe to the one who contends with his Maker, an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth.

Will the clay say to the potter, What are you doing? Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands? Woe to him who says to a father, What are you begetting? Or to a woman, With what are you in labor pains?

God’s Sovereignty Over Cyrus and Israel’s Restoration

Now these first ten verses that I've read here, this is really the first section of this chapter, where God once again addresses Cyrus, and this is prophetically written. This is over a hundred years before Cyrus is going to ascend to this throne, and God is going to use him to set Israel free, that they might be able to return to their land, build the temple, rebuild their walls of Jerusalem, so on and so forth.

God even names who the man is before he's even born. Cyrus is going to be the guy who does it. So proclaiming once again the sovereignty of God, that he has ordained all of this, and there is nothing happening outside of what he has planned and purposed.

So that's in verses 1 -10. Next in verses 11 -19, God is going to call upon Israel to pray to him. So recognizing that he is sovereign, and he is in control, wouldn't you want to call upon the one who has ordained all things to happen the way that they do?

And then finally in verses 20 -25, we have this last address for the people to come together and present their case. Who are you going to worship? Are you going to worship God, or are you going to continue to go off in your rebellion and sin that you were in before?

And again, all of this is to draw Israel's attention to the fact that God is God, to recognize that he is sovereign over all, that they would worship him and honor him, and this nation that he has set apart for himself, and God is still accomplishing his purposes through them.

So we come back to chapter 45 verse 1, Thus says Yahweh to Cyrus his anointed. Now this is not the same as the chosen servant back in chapter 42. Calling Cyrus an anointed is just simply to say that he has been chosen by God and exalted to this place of king, because kings were anointed.

When you had the ceremony of their enthronement, of their crowning, they would be anointed, showing that they are set apart. And even for the pagans to represent him as divine, because they thought of their kings as being godlike in a certain sense.

Some of them thought their kings actually were gods. And sometimes those kings exalted themselves as gods. But for God to say that Cyrus is anointed is simply to say that he is chosen. You have the position that you have because God has placed you there.

Whom I have taken hold of by his right hand to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. So all of the things that Cyrus is going to achieve will be because God has ordained it.

And again, all of this to call the people's attention to the fact that God is in control. Recognize all of this comes through the prophet long before it takes place. So that you will know that God is God.

Verse 2, I will go out before you and make the rough places smooth. I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places so that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

Now Cyrus, certainly when he equips Israel to go back into the land, he says things that are very exalting of God. But we're not given any indication that Cyrus actually becomes a believer. He does recognize God's authority, but doesn't seem to humble himself before it.

Turn from his sin to God, knowing that salvation is only through the Lord. We really don't know the extent of Cyrus's devotion to the Lord. He just saw the Hebrew God as a God and gave tribute to him, but not to the extent that he worshiped God alone.

Or did not even think of himself, Cyrus, as not being a God. There's much about Cyrus that is not known. But we know that Cyrus did have a recognition of the Lord in exactly the fulfillment of this prophecy that we see here in chapter 45.

And God says, you don't know me, but you are going to know me. And you're going to know that it is I who have put you in this place. So verse 4, God says, here's the reason why he has put Cyrus in this position.

For the sake of Jacob, my servant, and Israel, my chosen one, I have also called you by your name. I have given you a title of honor, though you have not known me. So Cyrus was not raised to know the God of the Hebrews.

And that statement itself, too, though you have not known me, seems to indicate that even after the Hebrews are sent back to their land, that they may reestablish it. Cyrus doesn't end up becoming, for lack of a better word, a Christian.

Cyrus doesn't become a Christian. He doesn't become a God-fearer. He doesn't worship exclusively the God of the Hebrews or institute in his land. We're going to only worship the God of the Hebrews. The statement, though you have not known me, indicates both a past and a future reality, that Cyrus just did not know God.

He may have, in that particular season, given tribute to the Lord and spoken very highly of God to the Hebrew people, but Cyrus doesn't become a believer himself. Yet, it is the fact that all of these things are fulfilled through Cyrus, that God is exalted.

So, verse 5, I am Yahweh, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known me. So, for the season that Cyrus does give recognition of the Lord, it is because God is the one who has done it, that God receives all the praise.

Verse 6, that they may know, from the rising to the setting of the sun, that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other. The one forming light and creating darkness, producing peace and creating calamity.

I am Yahweh, who does all of these. What a declaration. This is one of the most sovereign passages in all of Scripture. We've seen a few of them here in this section of Isaiah, chapters 40 -48. We also saw in chapter 43, where God says, You are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me there is no God formed, and there will be none after me. Such great phrases that have been said about God's sovereignty through the prophet of Isaiah. So, let me jump back a little bit again, though, where it says in verse 6, that they may know me from the rising to the setting of the sun.

Well, who is they? They is most likely in reference to Jacob. For the sake of Jacob, my servant, and Israel, my chosen one, that they may know me from the rising to the setting of the sun. So, what God has done through Cyrus is going to draw the people back to the Lord.

And this in fulfillment of something that God said through the prophet Jeremiah. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. That was God speaking to the Jewish people, though at that particular time they were not seeking God.

But that was prophetically said. A time is going to come when you will seek me, and you will seek me with all your heart. And it is God who has achieved that, not man by his own free will. All of this is being sovereignly said over time.

God's sovereignty over time itself. To ordain those things that are going to take place a century before they take place. So, he goes on to say, there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh. And there is no other.

God Creates Peace and Calamity

Verse 7, the one forming light and creating darkness. We generally think of light as a good thing, and darkness as a bad thing. And you see constant motifs throughout scripture, even in paganism, of light versus darkness.

Light is good, darkness is bad. Producing peace and creating calamity is the next line. In the King James Bible it says, I make peace and create evil. Calamity being synonymous with evil there. Producing peace and creating calamity.

God causes good events, and God causes bad events. It is the Lord who does all of this. I am Yahweh who does all these. I had asked a question not long ago on social media. I did this as a poll question.

I said, do you believe that God has commanded all that comes to pass, and it is from his mouth that both good and bad come. And it was amazing some of the pushback that I got on that poll. It was just simply a yes or no question, but in the comments it would say, no, I wouldn't say that he's commanded it, he's ordained it.

Those people that were in most agreement with the phrase, they would still push back on it that way. They would say, yeah, I don't like the word command, but he ordained it. That would be a better word.

But the scripture says exactly that. I asked that question and phrased it that way, because that's what the scripture says. It's Lamentations 3, verses 37 and 38. When Job had gone through the disasters that he had experienced, the loss, the calamity, the distress, the chaos, his wife told him, curse God and die.

And Job says, you're talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept only the good from God and not also the bad? And the scripture gives credit to Job saying in all these things, he did not sin by blaming God.

So Job acknowledged good things and bad things both come from God, but he didn't blame God. He didn't accuse God, saying like you did wrong in some way. God can cause calamity. He can cause the calamitous things that happen to us in our lives, and God is still completely good and completely just.

He has done nothing wrong to you. And so as Job recognized all the things that came upon him, yet he did not blame God. He did not sin by blaming God, and yet perfectly acknowledged, God causes good, and he causes the bad things that happen to us as well.

Those things that we would call bad. But he's working all things together for our good and for his glory. You know Romans 8, 28. For those who love God and are called according to his purpose, God is working all things together for good.

For our good. That we might be conformed to the image of Christ. Let's continue on. Still in this first section of God proclaiming his sovereignty. Verse 8, I, Yahweh, have created it. The justice that will be done even in the midst of the judgment that has come against Israel.

God is the one who is going to cause it to happen. And verse 9,. And woe to the one who contends with his maker. An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth. Will the clay say to the potter, What are you doing?

Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands. Woe to him who says to a father, What are you beginning? Or to a woman, With what are you in labor pains? This is the same passage that Paul uses in Romans chapter 9.

When a person contends with the arguments that Paul is making, And Paul is making arguments there in Romans 9, Very similar to things that are being said here in Isaiah chapter 45. Or in this whole section, Isaiah 40 to 48.

The Apostle Paul is saying that it is God who does it. And he wills to happen what happens. And he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, And has compassion on whom he has compassion. He has chosen Jacob to love before he is born, And hated Esau before he was born.

And so he has mercy on whomever he wills, And he hardens whomever he wills. Romans 9 .18. So then the contention to that, the debater will say, Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?

Like if we do wrong, How can God find fault with us? Because if it was God's will for us to do this, Then, you know, isn't it his fault that we did bad? Who can resist his will? So how can he still find fault in us?

And that is where Paul responds, But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay To make out of the same lump One vessel for honorable use And another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath And make known his power, Has endured with much patience Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction In order to make known the riches of his glory For vessels of mercy, Which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

That's precisely what's going on here. That's exactly what Isaiah is shedding light on. That God has created some vessels For dishonorable use, And he, desiring to show his wrath And make known his power, Has endured with much patience Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

He's used the Assyrians To bring judgment against Israel And against Judah. But these are also vessels of wrath That he's going to destroy. He's going to use the Babylonians To bring judgment against Judah.

These are vessels of wrath That have been prepared for destruction. His might and his glory Is going to be demonstrated When he tears them down. And so he has even ordained That this man is going to come along Decades from now, Over a century from now, He's a ruler whose name is going to be Cyrus.

God even knows his name, Because it is God who named him. It is God that has ordained, This is what his name is going to be, And here is what he is going to do In the midst of the world at this particular time.

God is the one who has settled it. And he is the one Who is going to turn Cyrus' heart, Though you have not known me, As said in verses 4 and 5. Though Cyrus didn't even know God. It is God who is going to turn his heart To have sympathy on God's people.

And set them free from captivity. Not only that, but set them up With all the treasures and materials That they need to go back into Jerusalem And build their temple once again for worship. To worship God, Yahweh.

Yahweh who has done this. It is God who has ordained all of this. Can anybody make any kind of argument That Cyrus had free will To refuse to do What God is saying that he is going to do? This is not God proclaiming.

I have looked down the tunnel of time And decades from now there is going to be This man named Cyrus who is going to rise up And oh look, it just so happens that He is going to have a change of heart.

He is just going to decide, You know, I want to do good for these Hebrew people. And he is going to turn himself around And set them free from Persian captivity And send them back up to their land. And I am telling you about it because I have looked through the tunnel of time And I can see that this is going to take place And that is how it is going to happen.

That is not what Yahweh is proclaiming here. Yahweh is saying, here is what I have ordained. Here is what I have said is going to happen. And I have set this up From before the foundation of the world.

As said back in chapter 41 verse 26, Who has declared this from the beginning That we might know? Or from former times that we might say He is right. Surely there was No one who declared. Surely there was no one who caused Those words to be heard.

Surely there was no one who heard Your words. God was the one that was standing At the beginning of time Knowing everything that was going to take place Because it is exactly as He ordained it. We are going to get to a passage In the next study of Isaiah Well the next chapter Because we are not going to get all the way through chapter 45 today.

But when we get to chapter 46 It is in verse 10 where it says that God declares the end from the beginning And from ancient times things not yet done Saying, my counsel shall stand And I will accomplish all my purpose.

Yahweh is not saying Things here that He knows Are going to happen in the future. He is saying, this is how I have set this up. And who is going to change it? Who is going to thwart my counsel? Step forward if you can do it.

Back in Isaiah chapter 14 We read, for the Lord of hosts Has purposed And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out And who is going to turn it back? Whatever God has purposed to take place Will take place.

And He is saying here that all of these things Have happened, all of these things have been Set up, all of these things Will transpire, so that you May know that I am He, and there is no other Besides me.

I am that I am. Which is what the name Yahweh.

Means.

Trusting God in Good and Bad, Life and Death

My friends, whatever it is that's going on In your life Good or bad God has ordained for this To happen. And how are you going to respond to it? Will you respond like Job's wife? Curse God and die? Will you respond like the Debater in Romans 9?

Saying, well then how can God still Find fault with me? Because who can resist God's will? Or will you understand As God means for Israel to see That God is sovereign That He is in control He alone is worthy of our worship.

Nobody.

Else is in control Of the things that happen in your Life but God. And believe it or not, no matter what Calamitous thing may be happening to you In your life, it's for Your good. It is actually for your Good.

I quote to you Romans 8 28 again, we Know that for those who love God All things work together For good. My friends.

All things.

All things work Work together for good For those who are called According to His purpose For those whom He foreknew From before the foundation Of the world. He also Predestined To be conformed to the image Of His Son.

These things are happening That you might draw near to God Cling to Christ And become more like.

Him.

Jesus went Through devastating things in His life And we share In Christ's sufferings when we Suffer as well and yet Hold to Christ in the midst of those things Knowing that Jesus is the one Who raises the dead.

These things that I Go through now in this life Maybe they become so great upon me That they take my own life. You might be afflicted with an illness That may be the very thing that kills you. You could be in an accident today You didn't plan but it happens.

And it takes your life but you have Nothing to fear even if that should.

Occur.

Because you trust in the one Who raises the dead He Himself who conquered Death and came back from the grave. Death has no hold on you. Though your body May die you will Reign with Him forever in glory.

And then as Paul says also In the book of Romans That the present sufferings are not even worth Comparing to the things That await us in glory This suffering will be as nothing. For we Will be united forever With God In perfect peace.

Let's finish there and we'll come back to Chapter 45 Again next week. Heavenly Father we thank You for what we've read. These Reminders of Your sovereignty and Your Control over all things I pray that we would Continue to trust in You in the midst of Everything knowing that You reign And nothing is happening outside Of Your control.

It is All for Your glory. And we benefit from That as well. It is for our good that We might be conformed to the image of Christ. May we continue to draw near To Him who died for our Sins who rose again from the dead So that in Christ Jesus we Would ascend into The very dwelling of God and live with You forever Glorifying You Because You are Yahweh.

And there is no other Help us to trust in You All the more And put our hope in Christ. It's in His name that we pray.

Amen.

This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all Of our podcasts, episodes, videos, Books and more, visit our Website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit A question to this broadcast Or just send us a comment, email Whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com And let your friends know About our ministry.

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