A Strange Introduction to a Song | Clip from Servant Song V

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Well, let's look at these two servants and see if we can't get a clearer picture of our Lord first in verses 1 2 and 3

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We see a picture of Israel the failed servant. So let me read those verses

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Thus says the Lord Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away or to whom of my creditors?

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Did I sell you? Behold you were sold for your iniquities and for your transgression.

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Your mother was sent away Why was there no man when I came when

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I called why was there none to answer is My hand so short that it cannot ransom or have

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I no power to deliver Behold, I dry up the sea with my rebuke. I make the rivers a wilderness their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst

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I Clothed the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering

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It's a strange introduction for a song, but there's so much there that we need to understand.

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First of all, let's make it simple There are three great questions that God asks Israel and these questions show us in an indirect way

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What's so wrong with Israel right now? you remember that Israel for some time has been drifting into idolatry and their hearts have been divided and God has entered into Judgment with them and they are ignorant of God's ways.

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They ignore their own history they ignore the Word of God and so they are willfully unaware of what

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God is doing and misunderstanding the present Unhappiness of being under the gracious judgment the fatherly discipline of God They totally misunderstand it and their response shows their unbelief

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So let's look at these three questions verse 1 first question where? Where is the legal document of divorce that I gave your mother?

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In other words Israel is acting like a wife who because of her poor lifestyle because of her bad choices the husband has put her away and Now she is looking for someone else to live with some other relationship to satisfy her and she started dating again

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And God is saying to Israel in a sense. I did not divorce you.

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I have not put you away Your sins have made a separation between you and me

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But I didn't divorce you and you are not free to date around and find other gods to satisfy you

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Second question same verse verse 1 to whom have I sold you?

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okay, well if you're not a divorced woman who's allowed to date you're also not a Fired employee a fired servant who having been fired.

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You're free to go find another master The problem is not that God has gotten rid of Israel as his servant

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The problem is that Israel in their sin has a divided loyal Loyalty in their heart and so sometimes they listen to the voice of God and sometimes they listen to the other voices third question in verse 2 and 3 why

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Why when I came did no one answer why when I called did no one respond?

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very Clear concrete picture very human picture of God dealing with his people.

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It's as if God seeing Israel's idolatrous adulterous drifting disloyal heart comes to talk to them about this in the prophets and When he knocks on the door, they don't even bother to get up and answer when he calls them on the phone.

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They don't answer What's the reason? Well verse 2 and verse 3 he reminds them in and very clearly

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Exodus kind of language He reminds them in language that ought to point them back to the rescue of Israel when they were in Egypt I'm the

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God that can do all of these things to rescue you and yet you don't believe it

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Enough to answer the door to pick up the phone. That's why you're unresponsive