Isaiah (Part 3) - Asset or Liability? — Ron Bailey

The Servant’s Disposition: Waiting Upon the Lord

Let's just have a word of prayer then, and we'll begin. Beyond the sacred page we seek Thee, Lord, we lift our hearts to You. Thank You again, Lord, that You've sent one to lead us into all truth, not just to express it in our minds, but to take us right into it so that it becomes our truth.

We give ourselves to You, Lord, this day and depend again upon Your help. Glorify our Lord Jesus as we share these things together. Amen. If you'd like to turn again to Isaiah, we really are still very much at the beginning of things and what I want to do, whether I shall ever get to where I really want to go, I'm beginning to I think we finished yesterday morning on the last verse of chapter 40, just pointing out that this waiting upon the Lord is really the disposition of a servant.

It's an attitude of heart. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. I'm sure you've heard lots of people speak about that verse, so I'm not going to concentrate on it.

But just to move on into chapter 41, where it says, Keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come near together to judgment.

And then the prophet does another one of these prophetic leaps. And he jumps some more years, and in his prophetic vision, he sees a man referred to here as, the A .V. says, a righteous man. It's really a man that God has called in his own righteousness, who raised up, I'll leave it as it is in the A .V., who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, and gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings.

He's still asking the question, who are we talking about? The one he's talking about is God, Jehovah. The one who has expressed himself in that relationship to the people of Israel. The name Jehovah is the great name by which God revealed himself to the people of Israel.

Jehovah’s Name as the Revelation of His Character

All God's names are revelations of his character. They're not labels like our names are. I sometimes say this, if you've heard me say it before, please excuse me for saying it again, but my particular label tells you nothing at all about me.

My label was given to me because during the war years, my mother went to the cinema and saw a film in which there was a good-looking American cowboy, who later on became a president of a certain country, and decided this would be a good label to stick on this thing that she was carrying.

And that is the explanation of my label. It tells you nothing at all about my character, except the kind of family that I come from. But God's names aren't like that. God's names are not arbitrary labels, they are revelations of his character.

In fact, if you want to do something when you read the Scriptures that may just open little avenues of truth to you, whenever you see the word name in the Scriptures, when it speaks of the name of God or the name of the Lord Jesus, in your mind, just briefly, substitute the word character.

Just briefly, substitute the word character, and it will begin to open all kinds of things out to you. God revealed his character in a unique way to the people of Israel in this name of Jehovah. He was theirs, and they were his.

It was a special kind of union. When Ezekiel spoke of the time that that union took place, he expressed it like this. Ezekiel chapter 16, when God said, I swore an oath to you, and you became mine. I entered into a covenant with you.

The people of Israel, the nation of Israel, became God's unique nation, and there came into existence a unique and exclusive relationship, which is like marriage. And from this time on, whenever the people of Israel rebelled against God and went after other gods, God referred to it as adultery.

Because it was a breaking of this marriage covenant into which he had entered with them at Sinai. God here is beginning to speak about the time, let me give you that timeline again, just so that we can work to it.

Isaiah was prophesying, at this time probably, round about the time shortly after the northern kingdom of Israel had been taken into captivity in Assyria. Remember that was 722 BC, if you remember that date that we spoke of.

In the earlier part of the next century, in the 590s, 580s, the kings of Babylon would come to Jerusalem and break down Jerusalem's walls and take captive the people of the southern kingdom, Judah. And they would be in captivity for 70 years.

Now the prophet is looking beyond that time. And he's beginning to look to the time when God would raise up another kingdom. So, you've got three empires now that have touched this prophet in his prophecy.

You've got Assyria, followed by Babylonia, followed by this next empire that's now coming up. Now, this man that God raised up from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him. Someone has told me they're kind of putting down some of the quotes that I'm quoting.

Here's a quote for you, if I can remember it. The tapestry of history has no place at which it can be cut and the story makes sense. Do you understand that? That really is very kind of poetic. It simply means that, of course, history, you can't deal with it in blocks.

Because what happened yesterday inevitably affects today, and that happens and affects the next day, and it's like that. But there are one or two points in history where you can almost do it. When there is such a marked change of direction that you can almost start a block of history at this particular point.

And the raising up of a man named Cyrus, who came against the Babylonian empire and conquered it, and quickly brought a whole area under his rule, is a point a little bit like that. You can almost start a new section of history with Cyrus.

He came almost from nowhere, without any warning. He was a man particularly uniquely commissioned of God. If you want an explanation to the meteoric rise of Cyrus, you've got it here. God raised up this man from the east, and called him to his foot, and gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings.

God gave to this man amazing power and authority. And although the nations trembled when they saw the power of Cyrus, as far as God is concerned, Cyrus is just another servant that he has called to his foot.

This is like, um, what do they call this? This is like a royal commission. This is a command performance. God calls Cyrus to his feet, and he says, come here Cyrus, I've got a job for you. God gave this man his name in prophecy, over a hundred years before the man existed.

Although this man never knew God in the way that God's people knew him, God knew him, and God had a purpose for him. And he begins to speak of Cyrus, and Cyrus becomes, in a sense, my servant. He is God's man that God chose for a particular purpose.

And it says a little bit here of the conquests of Cyrus. Remember, we are talking a long time before it happened, 150 years. I'll read verse two again. Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, made him rule over kings.

He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who has wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, Jehovah, the first and with the last. I am he. The isles saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped everyone his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, Be of good courage.

So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith. And he that smooths with the hammer, him that smote with the anvil, saying, It's ready for the soldering. And he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved.

What's all that about? It's referring to the fact that this shadow of Cyrus, as it began to spread over the nations, the nations trembled at the approach of this man. It didn't seem as though it was possible to stop him.

One empire after another tumbled to this man's advance. The isles trembled. Everyone is afraid. And people try to encourage one another. And one man encourages another. And how can they best encourage one another?

Well, their only hope is in their gods. So you're back to the idol makers. You're back to the carpenter saying to the one who smooths out the gold, smooths with the hammer. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith.

And he that smooths with the hammer, him that smote with the anvil. It's their only hope. And then in verse 8, it says, But thou, Israel, art my servant. Israel was not the servant of a god that had been made by a carpenter or a goldsmith.

The Living God Who Carries His People

In fact, a little bit later on in Isaiah, perhaps we can just turn to it briefly. In chapter 46, there is one of the times that Isaiah makes a very strong contrast between one kind of god and another kind of god.

And maybe it's as well that we consider these things at time and ask ourselves a question. What kind of god do you have? Is your god a liability or an asset? What kind of god do you have? In this little passage of scripture, you're going to read about two different kinds of gods.

The first two that are referred to in chapter 46, Bel and Nebo, are names of two Babylonian gods. And this is how Isaiah, speaking by the Spirit of God, expresses things. Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle.

Your carriages were heavy loaded. They are a burden to the weary beast. Let me ask you, is your god a burden to the weary beast? Is he a liability? Does he have to be carried about? Is he just another responsibility?

Because that's what was going to happen here. They stoop. They bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by me from the belly.

The question that's really being asked in chapter 46 is a very simple one. It's who carries who? That's the question. Who carries who? Or should it be whom? I'm never quite sure what to do with who's and whom's.

Who's doing the carrying? Are you doing the carrying? Is that the kind of god that you've got that is a liability, that is just another burden, just another responsibility? Is he like the gods of the ancient people who was hopeless and helpless to help himself?

Those gods had eyes, but they did not see. They had ears, but they couldn't hear. They had hands, but they couldn't help. And one of the ways that the people of Israel distinguish between those gods and their god is that they referred to their god as the living god.

The living god. Not one of these idols. Not one of these liabilities that has to be carried about. Hearken to me, verse 3, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age I am he.

And even to whore hares will I carry you. I have made and I will bear. This is a key truth in the scripture, that you are responsible for what you make. What you make, you are responsible. If you are the creator, you become responsible for the thing that you have created.

If you create yourself a god, you will find yourself responsible for the god that you have created. You'll find you're having to carry him. If you have some notion of god, some idea of your own, inevitably you will end up carrying the burden of that responsibility, of the god that you have created.

The very last verse of John's first letter says very simply, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from do-it-yourself gods. Keep yourself from your own ideas. The things that you end up having to be responsible for, and you have to defend them, and you have to hold up the testimony of this god that you have invented.

They're a burden, these gods. They're a liability. The poor weary beasts you can see, Isaiah, with this irony that so often comes in his prophecies. These poor creatures puffing and panting, pulling these gods about, that are absolutely helpless to help themselves.

But I have made, he says in the second half of verse four, and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god.

They fall down, yea, they worship him. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he stands, from his place shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

Remember this, and show yourselves men, bring it again to mind, oh ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.

Calling a ravenous bird from the east, this is Cyrus again, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass.

I have purposed it, I will also do it. This is God again, just drawing attention to himself. There's an absolute contrast between God and all other gods. All other gods are the creations of men, and because they are the creations of men, they become the responsibilities of men.

And they have to carry them, and they have to look after them, and they have to polish them and dust them when they get dusty, and if they fall on their faces like Dagon, they have to lift them up again.

These poor gods, utterly helpless, they have to be towed here and there. So, it's as well to know that we are rightly related to the God who has created us, because if he has created us, then we are his responsibility, and he will do the carrying.

And then God is an asset, and not a liability. Let's go back to where we were in chapter one, forty-one. Verse eight, this is God contrasting the people of Israel with all those other fearful nations who trembled when the shadow of Cyrus was going to draw near.

Verse eight, but thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. It's a wonderful phrase, isn't it? We become so familiar with these phrases, I think, sometimes that we must need to leave them on one side and then come back to them and see them fresh.

Israel as God’s Servant and Abraham as God’s Friend

Abraham, my friend. This is the God of the whole earth. This is the God, remember, who measures the heavens in a span, who measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, for whom all the nations are just like the drop of a bucket.

And he looks down upon this man, Abraham, and he says, this man is my friend. Staggering, isn't it? The Lord Jesus said something similar. He said, you are my friends, if you do those things that I command you.

And that's the secret of Abraham's friendship with God, that Abraham did those things that God spoke to him. By faith he obeyed, going out not knowing where he was going, by faith, by faith, trusting God.

He speaks here about Israel as God's servant. Notice, please, the singular, Israel, my servant. We're going to look at something in a moment. Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend.

Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, thou art my servant. I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not, for I am with thee.

Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. I want to try and draw your attention to something that is almost impossible to see in any Bible translation which comes from the 20th century.

This isn't because I'm archaic that I'm saying this. It's just simply because we have lost something in the 20th century in the English language. Those of you whose first language isn't English, you won't have this kind of problem that people whose first language is English do have.

And that's the fact that we've lost this word, thou. Thou is the second person singular. It means you, personally. It's like a finger that comes out and says, I don't mean everybody generally, I mean you particularly, thou.

What's happened is that it's got merged into this other one, the second person plural, which is you. And now, with any translation that you have that has been produced in the 20th century, you no longer see the distinction between thou and you.

And there are times when it is a vital distinction. Let's go back to Exodus, to the time when the people of Israel were you. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 19. We can pick up with these eagle's wings.

This was to be the eagle-winged nation, Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you, plural, unto myself. Now, therefore, if you, plural, will obey my voice indeed and keep my commandment, then you, plural, shall become a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you, plural, shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.

What happened with the people of Israel, as a result of their experience in God, is that this whole nation of people, all these individuals, were all baptized into one person. They were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.

And from that time, they took on a corporate entity. They took on a responsibility in the sense of one person, and God often referred to them as one person. If we go, make a big jump from Deuteronomy, sorry, from Exodus to Deuteronomy, and come towards the end of Deuteronomy, in chapter 31.

This is after their time in the wilderness, and the people of Israel, God's people joined to him now in covenant, have come to the threshold of their inheritance. They're about to enter into that that God has promised to them.

And God speaks to Moses, and gives Moses a song. And Moses is to teach this song to the people of Israel. They all have to learn it. I often wonder what it must have been like, teaching them all this song.

It's not a very pleasant song. It's a song that has a very powerful warning in it. This is God, right at the beginning of his dealings with his people, and you get this same note of pathos, of sadness, that you heard that we read together in Isaiah, when in Isaiah, God said, I knew that you would deal very treacherously.

And here, in the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 31, this is Moses speaking, I'll read from verse 24. Chapter 31, verse 24, And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, take this book of the law, and put it in the inside, in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

For I know thy rebellion. Notice we've gone into single, into the singular now. I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, and then we come back to plurals, you have been rebellious against the Lord, how much more after my death.

Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you.

I know. This is Moses speaking by the Spirit of God. I know. Just as Isaiah lay to us to speak by the Spirit of God, I knew. I knew you would deal very treacherously. Here's Moses. I know. Verse 29. I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

And Moses spoke in the ears of the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. You know parts of this song. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

My teaching shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of Jehovah, the character of Jehovah.

Israel’s Commission to Display God’s Character

It was the intention that this nation should publish the character of Jehovah. This was God's purpose with this missionary nation, with this priestly nation. They were to publish the name of the Lord.

They were to reveal the character of God. They were to be a people who would show forth the virtues of their God. Behold, I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness unto our God. He is the rock.

His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and upright. That's the character that they were to portray. That's the character that by their lives, this people received a commission to live out so that other nations would look upon them and say, what kind of God does this people have that they live in this way?

And the result of that would be that they would come and inquire and know more about the God who was publishing his name, revealing his character in his people. The rock. His work is perfect. Does this sound like a description of Israel to you?

His work is perfect. All his ways are judgment. Truth without iniquity, just and right. It doesn't sound like a description of Israel. As we came to know it, I knew, says God, that you would deal very treacherously.

On one occasion, it's in Isaiah, if I can just find it quickly. I just thought I might be able to see a verse, but I can't just drop my eye on it. But at a time in the prophecy of Isaiah, where God speaks to his people and he says to them, your first father has sinned.

Do you know where that is? Your first father has sinned and your interpreters, he says, have sinned against you. I can't just see it. Yes, I can. Verse chapter 43. If you've got any fingers left, you can leave one in Deuteronomy.

Isaiah 43 and verse 27. This is where God is bringing his heavy-hearted accusation against the people of Israel. I'll read from verse 18 so that we can pick up the sense of it. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen.

This people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. That was their purpose. That was their purpose, to live a life in which God would be able to display his character in them with such a fullness that people would have seen their good works and glorified their Father, which was in heaven.

They were to show forth the praises of God's name. But, verse 22, thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings.

Neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money. Neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices.

But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. That's a terrible thing for God to have to say. You have made me to serve with your sins. God is saying, my intention was that you should live such a life that there could be an obvious association between you and your God, and so that people would say, look at the kind of God that these people must have to live the life like this.

They would enhance the character of their God. They would be a credit to their God. God says, you've certainly linked me with yourself. You've made me to serve with your sins. And elsewhere, he says, because of you, my name is blasphemed among the heathen.

Goes on, verse 25, I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest be justified.

Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. Thy first father, verse 27, hath sinned, and thy teachers, maybe in your margin, you've got the word interpreters.

Israel’s Failed Interpretation of God

Your interpreters have transgressed against me. You know what an interpreter is? He's another middleman, isn't he? In the same way that a priest is a middleman, a priest is between two separate parties.

The living link between two. So, an interpreter is a link between two. He is the living link between two different persons. Your interpreters have transgressed against me. One of the consequences of having had the Church Life School in Reading for the past few years has been that if I'm able to go to any other country, there's a little pool of interpreters who are available to you because they know you.

If you don't know anything about the Church Life School, I'll just explain that it was something we did for the past four or five years in Reading. We haven't done it this year, and we have no fixed plans to do it next year either.

But the pattern was that particularly folks from overseas were invited to come and be part of the Church for six months in Reading, and then we reinforced the things that they were learning in the Church by specific times of study that we spent together.

And people would come, and we'd spend lots of times together around a big old Victorian table, and we'd share, and we'd learn lots of things together. The consequence was that if I go, I remember on one occasion going to Russia, to Moscow, and there was a sister there by my side, and to preach through this interpreter, it was absolutely glorious.

You see, she knew me. She trusted me. She knew how I thought. She knew where I was going. I forgot her most of the time. I just carried on preaching, just pausing from time to time, and it flowed. I remember in Tanzania, I was with a brother who you know well in the Church here at Exeter called John Nkenda, and I was out in the open air with a conference that they had gathered together.

There were about, I think, about 1 ,200 Africans or something all gathered together. It was a wonderful time. And just sharing and preaching, and absolutely oblivious to the fact that I got this man by my side.

And there were two sisters who were there at the same time, and one of them said, you know, just to watch you and to see the two of you together, she said it was like that, and she wrapped her middle finger over her first finger.

She said, you couldn't see daylight between you. That's an interpreter. But an interpreter can't do that unless he knows the person, unless he's learned to trust the person, unless he's learned to know how the person works, and then it's just one simple flowing, no struggling.

Your interpreters have transgressed against you, God said. Maybe you've heard the funny story about an interpreter. This was supposed to have happened also in Africa, in Nigeria, of a man who, he was Welsh.

If there are any Welsh here, I apologize for what I'm going to say. But I worked with a Welshman for many years, and it was a joy. I do know that the more excited he got, the more Welsh he got, and the more Welsh he got, the more unintelligible he got.

And this is what happened in Nigeria at this particular time, that there was a Welshman who was preaching, and as he became more and more excited, his accent became stronger and stronger. There was an Englishman in the meeting, and afterwards, he spoke to the interpreter and commended him, and he said, really, that was amazing.

He said, that man had such a strong accent, it was difficult. For me to understand what he was saying. And the interpreter said, I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I preached a sermon of my own.

Well, ten out of ten for initiative, but that is not an interpreter. That is not an interpreter. Your interpreters have transgressed against me, God says. I've said one thing, and you've said another thing, he said.

I've revealed this character to you, so that you could interpret me to the nations, and you've said something quite different to what I said. You've spoken your own ideas, you've said your own things.

Your interpreters have transgressed against you. I've gone back to Deuteronomy now, chapter 32, verse 4. He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and upright is he, they have corrupted themselves.

And he goes on to, I'll read from verse 7 now, remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask thy father and he will show thee, thy elders and they will tell thee, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

Does that mean that there were going to be enough people of the children of Israel to act as interpreters to the whole world? I don't mean they were going to be linguistic genius, I just mean, is this part of God's intention?

Verse 9, for the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

As an eagle stirs up her nest, back to eagles again, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them upon her wings. Can you see who's doing the carrying now? He's the eagle bearing her little ones upon her wings.

So, the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth. Just a word about eagles. Of all the creatures that God has ever created, the eagle is the least earthbound.

Of all the creatures that God has created, the eagle is the least earthbound. Those who wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They shall, it doesn't say they'll flap their wings. It says they shall mount up with wings like eagles, because eagles don't get to the prodigious heights they get to by flapping their wings.

They get there by cooperating with things that scientists call thermals. And in hot countries, where there are outcrops of rock, an eagle will find this and it will soar just on spread wings without any effort.