Isaiah - Lesson 14

Dr. John Oswalt

Isaiah

ot650-14

Israel Chosen to be the Lord's Servants

Lesson Transcript

We're continuing our study of the subdivision, chapters 40 to 55. In the previous lecture, we talked about Chapter 40 as the introduction to the entire division. Here we see the answers to those questions that I then knew would be in the minds of the exiles. Does God want to deliver us now? Answers. Oh, yes, Yes. Yes. Can God delivers? Yes. He. He's incomparable. There is no one else like him in power and wisdom in love. But will he? Yes, he will. Have you not heard? Have you not known? Yes, he will deliver us. That then introduces us to two other sections in the book. Again, we've talked about these before, but let me remind you. 41 through 48. Grace. The motive for servant who had God's undeserved grace in choosing to use his people as his witnesses there in exile. And then beyond that ought to motivate us to trust him and to lay down our lives in service to him. But that raises the other question How? God cannot simply ignore sin. And so chapters 49 to 55 are also about grace. But now grace is the means of servitude. By God's grace through his servant. He will enable us to return to him. There's one sense in which chapters 41 to 48 are about return from Babylon, and chapters 49 to 55 are return to your way. So let's back up now and look at particularly chapters 41 to 48. It basically has two sections. Chapters 41 through 46, which we can entitle the case against the Idols. The case against the Idols. And then 47 and 48, which we can entitle the verdict. What is the verdict of this case that has been carried out? It's not easy to. Organize chapters 41 to 46, because what we have in these chapters is the repetition of some themes over and over and over again, at least four times, perhaps five, depending on how you counted.

The case against the idols is restated. And in that case, several themes are mentioned again and again. And so we really are looking at a. Emphasis through repetition. We begin with chapter 41 through Chapter 4213, and I'm calling this segment two servants. 41 one through 4213. 41 one. Be silent before me, you islands. Let the nations renew their strength. Let them come forward and speak. Let us meet together at the place of judgment. So they are right in the opening verse is the opening statement of the case. Has Yahweh been defeated by the idols of Babylon? Oh, no, no. The Idols cannot even stay in the same courtroom with him. So there's the opening statement. Come, come. Who has stirred up one from the East, calling him in righteousness to his service. He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, too windblown chaff with his bow. God is saying, Now I've done something here that I dare you gods to reproduce. I've called someone from the East. We're going to learn later on who this is. It's Cyrus, the Emperor of Persia, who is coming to destroy Babylon in spite of all Babylonian Babylon's gods. So he goes on verse four and says, Who's done this? Is it the gods? No, no, it's not the gods. And the result is you have the first of these statements of self-affirmation that we're going to see right throughout this segment. I, Yahweh, the first and the last. I am here now that I am here is a pretty literal translation of the Hebrew. It. It's really only two words. I he. But it's really captured well in the Septuagint. The Septuagint. Septuagint translation is Eggo. Amy I am.

And that's what's going on here. It's not really I am here. I am that one or something like that. It's sort of I'm it. And I go. Amy then is. The fighting phrase that Jesus uses. Who are you? Ego, Amy, I am. So here we have the first of these statements. God saying I am the source of existence. I am the basis of existence. In the end, I am existence. And everything that is is dependent on me. I am the one being in the universe who is not contingent. All the rest of us. We're contingent on something or someone or someplace else. Not he. Then we turn to the response to this thing that Yahweh has done. Yahweh has called this man from the East. What's the response of the world? The islands have seen it in fear. Now islands. In the Old Testament is the ends of the earth. And that's duplicated again. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come together. They help each other and say to their companions, Be strong. The metal worker encourages the goldsmith, the one who moves with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the animal. One says of the Well, it's good, the other one nails it down so the idol won't fall down. What's the result? What's the response to this news of one coming from the east? Well, it's fear. And looking to the idols to try to be sure that we've got a good, effective God here who's going to work for us and go to Dependance. And then Yahweh turns to Israel. But you, Israel. And here's the first one. My servant, Jacob, whom I've chosen you descendants of Abraham, my friend. I took you from the ends of the earth, from the farthest corners I called you.

You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear. For I am with you. Have we heard that phrase anywhere before in this book? Emmanuel, I'm with you. So from a has in 735 B.C. until. This point somewhere in the middle of the exile. 550 B.C.. One truth. Emmanuel God is with us. And that means where all the nations are afraid, where the Babylonians are saying, What are we going to do? Quick, quick, make some more idols. Be sure all the idols of cleaned up and dressed up well and have good meals before them. And. Israel. You don't need to be afraid. But, God, we've lost everything. Most of all, we've lost our hopes. No, you don't need to be afraid. And through these next five chapters, do not Fear is going to come up again and again and again. You don't have to be afraid. The longer I live and the longer I think about Scripture, I think again and again. What is the cause of sin? Fear. We're afraid. Adam and Eve were afraid. They were afraid God was going to keep wisdom from them. And so. They had to sin in order to deal with their fear. And so it is here. You don't have to be afraid. And we're going to look at he gives five different reasons why they don't have to be afraid. And we'll look at them as we come to them moving through here. But Israel is afraid. They're afraid. They've lost everything. They're afraid they're going to lose their identity. They're afraid they're going to lose their children. They're afraid that they're going to be absorbed into this mighty empire and it'll all be over. And Isaiah, speaking by inspiration to them across 150 years, says when it happens, you don't need to be afraid because God is not limited to Israel.

Ezekiel struggled with that. Oh, my goodness. God's house there in Jerusalem. He'd been prepared to be a priest. And now he was in exile in this unclean land. He would never be a priest again. And God was back there in Jerusalem, and God says, No, I'm here. And he gives him that glorious vision of the cherubim. And then he shows him that, in fact, that temple back there is filthy. And at the end, of course, he gives them the picture of the glorious temple in which God will come home to dwell. Don't fear. So through the rest of Chapter 41, we have. Him saying, look at verse 14. Don't be afraid, you worm. Jacob Little Israel. Don't fear. Because I myself will help you. There's the second one. I'm with you here in captivity in Babylon. And I'll help you. Hmm. Isn't that amazing? God will help us. No, no, no, no. We help God. No, God says I'm going to come alongside you. You step forward in faith. And I'll come alongside you and supply the strength, the wisdom, whatever else you lack in order to stand firm in the face of all the uncertainties of life. Don't be afraid. I'm with you. Don't be afraid. I'll help you. So he continues and talks of all the ways in which he's going to help them. Verse 18 I will make rivers flow and barren heights springs in the valleys. I'll turn the desert into a pool of pools of water and the parched ground into springs. That's just what he said back in chapter 35, isn't it? I'll turn your deserts into gardens. That takes us through verse 20. Then we come to the full statement of the case against the Idols. The first one, it begins in 4121 and continues down through the end of the chapter.

And I want to spend some time here because this is basically what's going to be repeated at least four more times through these chapters. Present your case as the Lord set forth your argument, says Jacob's King. Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen? Predict the future. Or tell us what the former things were. Where did the world come from? Or tell us sometime when formally you predicted the future. Declare to us things to come. Tell us what the future holds so that we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we'll be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing. Your works are utterly worthless. Whoever chooses you is detestable. Now, think. Think I mentioned before this Yiddish word. Wonderful word. Chutzpah. You might call it nerve. They're captive in Babylon. The Babylonian gods, by all the odds, have won. They are supreme and Yahweh is. You're nothing. You can do nothing. They are part of the cosmos. The cosmos cannot tell us where it came from. The cosmos cannot tell us where it's going. The cosmos just seems to be an endless recurring cycle with neither past nor future. This happens to be the month of October. Guess what? Winter is coming. You see? How do you know that? Because it always does. If I were to say to you, well, this year we're going to skip winter and just go straight to spring, you'd say, you're crazy. The cosmos doesn't work like that. The cosmos cannot tell us the past and it cannot tell us the future. But Yohei says, I can. I'm going to do something that hasn't happened before. I'm going to bring a Persian emperor in here. I have stirred up one from the north and he comes.

I think by the time that people were reading this in the five fifties. Cyrus was already in action and people were saying, Oh my goodness, Isaiah was right. He treads on rulers as if they were Mordor, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told of this from the beginning? Now again, I think. That's a reference to. Hey. Isaiah first wrote this 150 years ago. He told us this before we were in Babylon. He told us this before Assyria had fallen. He told us this. Oh, my goodness. Who told us of this from the beginning so we could know. Or beforehand. So we could say he is right. None of you told this. None of you four it. Nobody heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion. Look, here they are. I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news. I look. But there is no one. No one among the gods to give counsel. No one to give Answer when I ask them. See, they are all false. Their deeds amount to nothing. Their images are but wind and confusion. Wow. So he has said. The nations are living in fear because of what they hear about this one who's coming from the east? But Israel. You don't need to fear. I'm with you. I will help you. And the gods upon which the Egyptians, the Babylonians, are depending. They're helpless. They can do nothing. They don't know what has happened. They don't know what's going to happen. But I do. I stand outside the circle of time and I can do new things. We're going to talk more about that in a few minutes. So that's the first servant. You are my servant. Whom I have chosen.

I have not rejected you. We don't quite yet know what their part is going to be in this case. We'll see it in a few minutes. But. You don't need to be afraid. So there's the servant who is tempted to be afraid and who is being encouraged not to fear. Now we're going to see a second servant. Remember, I've suggested that this unit is 40 112, 4213, and there are two servants in prominence here. The one is the fearful servant, Israel. And now we come to this other one. Here is my servant. Whom I uphold my chosen one in whom I delight. Okay. So far, so good. This is probably Israel. I will put my spirit on him. And he will bring mixed pot to the nation's. Remember what I said in an earlier lecture about the meaning of this word mish pot. It gets translated justice. That's not a wrong translation, but it's an inadequate translation. Hebrew students don't believe this, but the Old Testament has a very small vocabulary. If you're going to be fluent in Arabic, you have to have about an 8000 word vocabulary. If you're going to be at all fluent in English, you've got to have a 5000 word vocabulary. If you have a 2000 word vocabulary in biblical Hebrew, you will be able to read your Bible without a dictionary. What that means, though, is the main words, the the content words have a huge pool of possible connotations. And to say, well, this English word is what that word means. You've got to be careful with that. What are we saying here? Is the servant going to bring legal equity to the nations? Well, yes, but he's going to bring much more than that. He's going to restore God's divine order.

If you look at the most recent big Hebrew dictionary, it will say to judge same route that this word is taken from. To judge is to restore a shalom that has been disturbed. To restore a wholeness that has been disturbed. Yes. Yes. The world as God made it. The world as God intended. It has been broken. Shattered shards. What is this servant going to do? He's going to put the world back together. Will that involve legal equity? Oh, yes. But it'll involve so much more than that. And when people say, well, the purpose of the servant is to give us justice. I forgive me, shiver a little bit because the spirit. Means so much more than that. I will put my spirit on him. Isaiah, all through his book, is conscious of the work of God, the Holy Spirit, the one who is sustaining, the one who is providing energy, the one who is providing guidance. So how is this servant going to do what he's going to do? The spirit is going to be upon him. Let me diverge here for just a moment. Do you remember in the Gospels? Jesus comes to John to be baptized. And John says, You ought to be baptizing me. And Jesus says, We must fulfill. This is King James language. We must fulfill all righteousness. Put that in more contemporary language. John, we need to do the right thing here. Hmm. What's the right thing? And John testifies. I saw I saw the spirit descend on him. Isaiah Chapter 42. Who will this servant be? He will be the one on whom the Spirit of God descends. Now, obviously, Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. He doesn't need to get the Holy Spirit. But the point is, we're fulfilling what the Old Testament has said about this servant.

Now you're getting the picture here already. This is not the nation of Israel. I spoke about this a bit in the previous lecture. The servant. Israel is fearful. The servant, Israel is blind and rebellious. The servant Israel needs to be delivered and is called upon to be a witness to its deliverance. Its role will be witness to being delivered. This servant. Is very different. This servant is confident, though, facing as we're going to see great difficulties. This servant is confident. This servant is sensitive. This servant is obedient. This servant does not receive deliverance. This servant makes deliverance available. What's happening here, I'm confident, is we're getting a preview of what we're going to see in detail in chapters 49 through 55. There we will see who this servant is in greater detail. But it's as though Isaiah is saying, I want you to know in advance here where we're headed. All right, Let's go on with this marvelous passage. He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed. He'll not break a smoldering wick. He'll not snuff out in faithfulness, truth, absolute reliability. He will bring forth mish pot, God's divine order. He will not falter or be discouraged until he establishes much power on the earth. That's three times. Three times in four verses. What's this servant going to do? This servant is going to restore God's divine order on the world. That's not Israel. That's not you. That's not me. This is someone of super abundant power and ability and obedience to the father. This is what God the Lord says. Now, it's fascinating as we go through here. It's a little bit like Psalm two in Psalm to the Psalm as talks about the Messiah.

The Messiah talks about the Messiah and God talks about the Messiah. And then the Salvos talks about the Messiah again. Here we have the Prophet talking about the Messiah in one through four, and now Yahweh talks about the Messiah. This is what God the Lord says, the creator of the heavens who stretches them out. Okay. We're talking about the creator. We're talking about the man who put this whole thing into motion. The one who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives birth to its people and life to those who walk on it. I, the Lord I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. Now get this. I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and the light to the Gentiles. Right through this book, The People has referred to Israel. Now you will find commentators who will say, No, no, it's just a synonym for Gentiles here. Normally, if it's a synonym for Gentiles, it's the people's. But when it's a singular, the people, I don't think we're dealing with a synonym for the nations here. We're dealing with a light for Israel excuse me, a covenant for Israel. And again, that's what God has done and a light for the Gentiles. We're going to see this thought repeated in a later serve and passage. For me, this seals the evidence that we're not talking about Israel here. We're talking about someone else, someone whose task is to do something for Israel that Israel cannot do and to make it possible for Israel to become that light to the nations all the way back to chapter two, that it was called to be to open eyes that are blind to free captives from prison, to release from the dungeon, those who sit in darkness.

Does that remind you of anything? If you know your Bible at all well. You realize those are the words from Chapter 61 that Jesus used to introduce his own ministry in Capernaum. Yes. We're not talking about Israel. I'm Yahweh. That's my name. I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. He's going to say that again. See, the former things have taken place and new things I declare before they spring into being. I announce them to you. What's the evidence that he is your way? He can predict the future and the idols cannot. Now, at this point, perhaps some of you were saying, well, now wait a minute. In the ancient world, gods were making predictions all the time. What's going on here? One one. COMMENTATOR It was a rather famous one sort of mocks this. He says the prophet knew perfectly well that the gods made these predictions, but he just said this anyway. Now, the point is, when the gods make predictions, they are very general. The classic expression of this has to do with Croesus of Lydia. You might have heard the phrase as rich as Croesus. That used to be said. I haven't heard it recently. Croesus was king of this region of what is today. Turkey called Lydia. And Cyrus with the Persian armies is coming. Croesus is very worried. He's very, very rich. What are we going to do here? So he took a lot of money, went over to Greece. And went to the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle of Delphi was a woman who sat in a cave and every so often sulfurous smoke would come up out of a crack in the floor. And when it did, she would chirp like a bird.

And there were interpreters there who told you what she said. So Crisis went said. Will I succeed if I stand firm against Cyrus? Or should I make some sort of a deal? And the word was a mighty kingdom will fall. Okay. Cyrus is the mighty kingdom. Yep. We're going to stand. Cyrus cleaned his clock. He captured the kingdom, took his money. Croesus escaped. He went to Delphi and asked for his money back. And they said, We told you a mighty kingdom would fall. It did. Yours? Mm hmm. That's the kind of thing that the gods do in prediction. And I should say. The prediction of the gods was always linked to omens. Omens were tied to what had already happened. Okay, let's look at this sheep's liver here. Hmm. Oh, look there. It's distorted on the right. The king will die. Why would they say that? Because once before, when they looked at a sacrificial lambs liver and the liver was distorted on the right. A king died. What goes around comes around. What we're going to see as we go farther here is God says, I specifically told you. I specifically told you you would go into exile in Babylon. I specifically said Israel would go into exile to a Syria. I specifically told you the name of the Persian emperor. Where did any of the gods ever do that? And now I am specifically telling you, you will go home from exile. The gods can't do that. Now let's look at verses ten through 13 of Chapter 42. Sing to the Lord a new song. His Praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that's in it. You islands and all who live there. Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices.

Let the settlements where key to our lives rejoice. Let the people of Selah sing for joy. Let them shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim His praise in the islands. The Lord will march out like a champion, like a warrior. He will stir up his zeal with a shout. He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. Now, the text that I have in front of me, which is the new international version, has a hitting adverse ten song phrase to the Lord. It has no heading after 14. Well. Many commentators will do the same thing. They will say, actually, verse ten is the opening of the next section. I don't think so. What's this song of praise? What's this call to praise? What's it doing here? I think it is in response to the revelation of the servant. The servant who's going to restore God's most part to the world, the servant who is going to be a covenant for the people and a light to the Gentiles. Oh, sing praise. Sing praise. Now you say to me, Can you prove that, Oswald? No, I cannot. But I would argue that it makes all kinds of sense to see. What's this song of praise doing here? Because of what just preceded it. So we have two servants, the fearful servant, Israel, that has no reason to fear because God is going to be with them. He is with them and he's going to help them. And then we have the delivering servant. As I say, previewed for us. We're not going to see this servant again before we get to chapter 49. But he's being previewed here that we can see. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. We understand how it is that God could choose us as his servants and not reject us.

Let's continue then with the next section, which I would see as 4214 two 4422 4414 to 4422. My witnesses against the idols. Now it's going to be made clearer what the function of these chosen servants is and what their place is in all of this. So verse 14 of chapter 42. For a long time, I kept silent. I've been quiet and held myself back. Now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out. I gas my pant and God talks about what he's going to do in salvation in a very. Graphic language. Verse 17. But those who trust in idols. Did you hear a word there? Trust. Trust. We've not left behind the first 39 chapters. We're building on them. What is that will motivate us to trust? And what will motivate us to trust is grace. Those who trust in idols who say to images You are our gods will be turned back in utter shame. What should you do? Fearful servant. You should trust in me. Hear you deaf. Look, you blind. Have we heard deaf and blind? Somewhere earlier in this book. Hmm. Those to whom Isaiah's message was given. Here. You deaf? Look you blind. And see who is blind. But my servant. We're back to talking about Israel now. Death like the messenger I send who is blind like the one in covenant with me. Blind like the servant of the Lord. You've seen many things, but you pay no attention. Your ears are open, but you don't listen. It please the Lord, for the sake of His righteousness, to make His Torah great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They become plunder with no one to rescue them.

They have been made loot with no one to say. Send them back. Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come? Who handed Jacob over to become loot? Babylon didn't take you away from me. Babylon didn't do something to me that I was unable to stop. I gave you to Babylon. I sent you into exile. Same thing that was said back there. Way back there in chapter ten. Syria is not doing this of his own will. He is not doing this of his own plans. He is a tool in my hand. I am in charge of history. Not the Assyrians, not the bad ones. Was it not the Lord against whom you have sinned? They would not follow his ways. They did not obey his laws. So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames. Yet they didn't understand. It consumed them. But they didn't take it to heart. How true that is in the world. The tragedies that befall people and they simply shake their fist at God. Or they ignore him. When in fact, if they were paid attention to, they ought to turn us back to God. Chapter 43. But now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, Jacob? He who formed you? Israel. Do not fear. Here's the third one for I have redeemed you. Now think about this. These people, God says, You're my servants, you're my chosen. You're the one I'm going to use as witnesses in my court case. Deaf, blind, stupid. Is that what you want from witnesses in your court case? But that's what God says. I'm going to use you. I'm going to use you. And you don't have to be afraid, for I have redeemed you.

Mm hmm. When we haven't listened. When we haven't seen when we haven't paid attention. We've broken his heart. He says, don't be afraid. I have redeemed you. I've done whatever is necessary to restore you to myself. To quiet. The cry for justice over your sins. Don't be afraid. I have redeemed you. When you pass through the waters. I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they'll not sweep over you when you walk through the fire. You won't be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. For I am your way, your God, the Holy one of Israel. You are safe here. I particularly love this passage because it says to me that I can dare. I can dare to serve God. And if for any reason, through my own sinful tendencies or through my own ignorance or through my own inadequacies, I fail. God is there to redeem me. God is there to redeem the events. Oh, praise its name so we don't have to live in fear. We can dare. The devil says, you try this and you're going to fail. Maybe. Maybe. But if I do, the nail Pierced hands are there for me. For you. I give Egypt four year ransom, Kush and Sheba in your stead. What he's saying here is I'm going to give Cyrus and his successor's permission to take Egypt. Because I want him to come and deliver you. I give people in exchange for you. Nations in exchange for your life. Don't be afraid for I'm with you. Here's Emmanuel again. I'll bring your children from the east. Gather you from the west. I'll say to the north. Give them up to the south. Don't hold them back. Bring my sons from afar. My daughters from the ends of the earth.

Everyone who is called by my name. Whom I created for my glory. Hmm. God created you and me so that the world might see how wonderful, how powerful, how significant, how real, how true God is. Now comes. Perhaps the fullest statement of the case against the idols. This is in chapter 43, verse eight. And our time is about ended. So I think we'll stop there and pick it up in the next lecture. When you look at everything that the Israelites lost from Isaiah one on and yet they're called to trust him, it seems that there's constant loss of things would make it harder and harder to trust. So how does Isaiah give them the confidence to trust him in light of everything they've lost? I think the answer is that, Isaiah says. No, I can't give you overwhelming proof. Every time that something happens to you, it's going to turn out well or that sort of thing. But what he does do is to give them evidence at given points, the example of the destruction of sennacherib. And so tied directly to that then, are these predictions. I told you this was going to happen and it has happened. Oh, my God. Must indeed know the future. And therefore, when he tells me that good things are going to happen, that can be trusted. And it's in that context, the context of prediction that they are called in the light of all that I've said, in the light of all that I've predicted. Dare to trust me.