The Dark Context of the Servant Songs

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Well, there's a there's a very specific order. There's a context. Isaiah chapter 1 through chapter 39 is so distinctly different from Isaiah 40 through chapter 66 that some liberal theologians have said that these are actually two different authors.

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Now there is no manuscript evidence for this and there is no biblical reason to think this. So let's dismiss that, but let's not overlook the distinct difference.

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Chapters 1 through 39 deal with God judging the world and judging

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Judah, his people. Israel to the north is already under judgment. Judah is headed to judgment.

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Chapters 1 through 38, God has so many bitter messages for his own people.

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Chapter 1 opens with three terrible pictures. God says that Israel has drifted so far from him into idolatry that they are like, the first picture is barn animals.

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And God says barn animals know enough to know where to go to get their food from their master.

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My people don't know that much, so they go to idols. Second picture, he said you're like a child who because of their rebellious nature has been disciplined by a loving parent from head to toe.

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There's nowhere else left to spank you, so to speak. Third picture,

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God not attending church. In chapter 1 verse 15, he says you raise your hands to heaven in prayer. I will not look.

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I will not listen. I will not come to your meetings. So there's the moral and spiritual decline of Israel into idolatry.

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Second, the second aspect of the dark backdrop to these wonderful pictures of Christ is that even the leadership once very careful and godly,

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King Hezekiah, is now careless. Chapter 39, we find that Babylon, which is at this time a pretty small world power, sends a delegation of people to meet, a political delegation to meet the king of Israel and Hezekiah is so puffed up and proud.

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He shows them all the gold in his palace. He shows them all the gold in the temple and they of course are impressed and then they go home.

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Isaiah is sent by God to Hezekiah with this basic message. You're very foolish.

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These men come from the nation that will rule us one day and will carry us into exile.

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When Hezekiah finds that it won't happen in his lifetime, but in his descendants, he's okay with it.

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It's a picture of Hezekiah's carelessness, pride, indifference. Now, let's stop and ask ourselves, does that not remind us of our own present day?

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Particularly in the Western world, in evangelicalism, we find a moral decline that's so shocking that we don't even notice it.

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We've become used to it and maybe God would have to say those things to us. You're like a donkey that keeps going to the wrong place for food instead of coming to me.

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Why? You're like a child that's been disciplined everywhere. Where else could the American church experience judgment?

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And even though you lift your arms in prayer and you still gather on Sunday, God doesn't attend.

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Now, I'm not saying that it's that way everywhere, but that does describe a great deal of what we experience.

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And it is a picture of our judgment, our moral decline. What about our leaders? Well, whether it's national or sometimes religious, we do find that too often men who once were trustworthy are no longer trustworthy.

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And as we say that, we're certainly not above that ourselves. That's the dark context.

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Now, that means the next big event in Israel's history. The next thing on Israel's calendar is the book of Lamentations.

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Take some time before we go to the next podcast to read

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Lamentations. It is shocking that this is God dealing with his people and it's love, but it's judgment.

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But much more importantly, you'll be able to listen to all the podcasts on the Media Gratia network.