ISAIAH 48 “
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study we looked
at chapters 46 and 47 of Isaiah which deal again with the conquer of Babylon,
who is prophesied to take Judea captive, that is going to happen through the
man that the Lord names as ‘Cyrus’, and we saw that though the chapter was
repetitious of things that the Lord has already told us, that there are new
details found in these prophetic declarations
1.1.1.
Chapter 46 was a last-ditch
appeal to Israel to turn back to the Lord as the Lord called upon her to
consider her past and the great works which the Lord had done on her behalf in
deliverance from her enemies, and determine what of the gods of all of the
nations can do the things that the Lord does, and which of them can reveal the
end from the beginning of things, as the Lord has done over and over again
1.1.1.1.We saw that the future generation of captive Judeans will eventually
see the futility of idolatry and never fall into it again
1.1.2.
Chapter 47 dealt more with
Babylon itself and revealed that the future generation of Babylonians will bear
the consequences in judgment because of the sins of their fathers who sinned by
the harsh, merciless, and senseless violence which they committed against the
Judeans, God’s people, in taking them into captivity, enslaving them, and
randomly treating them with violence
1.1.2.1.When we studied this chapter, we saw that it is good to remember that
Babylon is also a symbol in the purposes of God of every nation that is in
rebellion against the Lord, and thus her fate is a foreshadowing of what shall
happen to every nation that is in rebellion against the Lord
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to finish up our present section of the book of Isaiah which began in
chapter 41 and deals with prophesies concerning Judea in which she would be
taken captive by Babylon and then years later that a deliverer of the nation
would come along, whose name is foretold to be Cyrus. In our study today, we will see that this
chapter is climactic for this section and deals with the fact that after the Judeans
are allowed to return to their city and nation, that they will still need to
take ownership of their sin, realizing that is because they turned away and
forsook the covenant of their God, going their own way from the Lord, and that
now they will need to realize all of the ways in which they have fallen into
sin, so that they might repent of their sins
1.2.1.
We will see that one of the
keys to our real growth as Christians and coming to the place where God can
really use our lives is when we also take ownership of our own sins, realize
what our sin has done in our life and the life of those around us, and we
realize just how wrong our life has been before the Lord, i.e. when we realize
what God has saved us from
2.
VS 48:1-2 - “1 ”Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by
the name of the Lord And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in
righteousness. 2 “For they call
themselves after the holy city, And lean on the God of
2.1.
Chapter 48 is the climax of the particular
section of the book that it belongs in. Since
chapter 41, Isaiah has been prophesying to a future generation of Judeans whom
he knew would at that time be captives in
2.1.1.
To not fear, which is a repeated theme.
2.1.2.
To realized that the Lord has still called
them and that though they may be in captivity they are still His people.
2.1.3.
To be willing to come out of
2.1.4.
To realize that the Lord will help them in
every aspect of their journey out of
2.1.5.
To know that Cyrus will himself pay for the
restoration of the city and the temple of the Lord.
2.1.6.
To be committed to the effort that they will
be called upon to re-build their temple, city, and city walls.
2.1.7.
To realize that they need to be restored in
their relationship with the Lord.
2.1.7.1.They
will need to see all of the ways in which they have turned from the Lord, and
then they will need to repent of those ways.
2.2.
Here in this chapter, the Lord seeks to
re-emphasize to these captive Judeans the realization that for them just to
come out of
2.3.
The Lord refers to these captive Judeans as
being from the house of Jacob, and even named as from
2.3.1.
In our nation and world today, there are many
in churches that are Christians only by name, that is, they are only Christians
to the extent that they call themselves Christians. However, their names aren’t written in the
Lamb’s Book of Life. These ones may seek
the Lord for the excitement of signs which they might see, however they do not
seek the Lord because they love Him and earnestly desire just to know and serve
Him.
2.3.1.1.In
Luke 6:46, Jesus met some people
who were like this in their attitude towards the Lord, and notice what He said
to them, “46 “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
and do not do what I say?”
2.3.1.2.In
Matt. 7:21-23, Jesus told His disciples
that there would be many who claimed to know the Lord and yet were not known by
Him and He would tell them on judgment day to depart from Him, “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.22
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?’23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from
Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
2.3.1.3.To
go to church, be raised in a Christian home, read your Bible, pray, etc., does
not necessarily mean that anyone has come to know Christ as their Lord and
Savior. To inherit salvation, there has
to be complete surrender to the Lord and a trust in the finished work of Christ
on the cross alone for salvation.
3.
VS 48:3-5 - “3 “I declared the former things
long ago And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. 4 “Because I know that you are obstinate, And
your neck is an iron sinew, And your forehead bronze, 5 Therefore I declared
them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, Lest you
should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image
have commanded them.’” - The Lord tells the captive Judeans living
100+ years after Isaiah’s writing that He declared the former things long ago
and that He had now suddenly acted
3.1.
There is much debate about what the ‘former
things’ are which Isaiah refers to, as well as what the ‘new things’ that the
Lord later speaks of in verse 6.
However, in context here I think that most likely what is being referred
to by the ‘former things’ is this prophesy concerning Judea that they would be
taken captive to Babylon and that they would be delivered from their captivity
by this man whom the Lord has already told us would be named, Cyrus.
3.2.
The Lord is reminding this yet unborn
generation of captive Judeans of the fact that this prophesy concerning their
captivity and deliverance from captivity was prophesied to occur long before
their time, and that it was then suddenly fulfilled in order to cause them to
realize that the Lord alone is God, and for them to come to the place that
their hearts were rent in two because of their sins and having turned away from
the Lord and thus bringing upon themselves these things.
3.2.1.
The
Lord tells them that He needed to work in such an obvious way in bringing about
the fulfillment of this prophesy because they are so ‘obstinate’, their ‘neck
is an iron sinew’, and their forehead is made of ‘bronze.’ In other words, because they are so hardened
to God’s word, they are so impenetrable to it, that the Lord needed to again
reveal Himself to them (as He did for instance in bringing them out of bondage in
Egypt) in an incredibly obvious way.
3.2.2.
In this chapter, we see that the Lord is
really trying to get the Israelites to have ownership for their own sins and
realize what their sins have done in their lives, the lives of their children,
and in the lives of those in their sphere of influence. I believe that a Christian will never really
get to a place where God is working powerfully in his life until he comes to a
genuine realization of what his sin has done in his life. He won’t truly come to the place where he
will grow and be mightily used by the Lord until he comes to the place where he
has truly taken ownership of his own sin and had the Lord bring him to a great
conviction of just how wrong his life has been before the Lord, and he knows
what it is that he has been saved from.
For you see, it is only when you know what you have been saved from that
you can truly appreciate God’s mercy and grace.
3.2.2.1.Until
we have come to have great conviction for the sins that we have committed
against the Lord, we will not come to the place of having a great appreciation
for the grace of God and realize just how much He loves us with His
unconditional love.
3.2.3.
The Lord has done a great work in the life of
each of us who are being saved as Christians, and I guess the question that we
might all want to answer before the Lord is whether or not the Lord has done
enough in providing for our salvation and then revealing Himself and His grace
to us, that we cannot walk by faith and be obedient before the Lord?
3.3.
The Lord tells the captive Judeans that He
has worked in this way so that they would not think that they had been
delivered by any ‘molten image’ or god made by their hands. They would know that only the Lord could have
done these things.
3.4.
As we have talked about in this study, the
Lord forever cured the Israelites of their idolatry by their stint of captivity
in
4.
VS 48:6-8 - “6 “You have heard; look at all
this. And you, will you not declare
it? I proclaim to you new things from
this time, Even hidden things which you have not known. 7 “They are created now and not long
ago; And before today you have not heard
them, Lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ 8 “You have not heard, you have not
known. Even from long ago your ear has
not been open, Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.” - The Lord tells the captive
Judeans living 100+ years after the time of Isaiah’s writing that He is now
declaring ‘new things’
4.1.
Again, the debate exists over what Isaiah
refers to as the ‘new things’ in this verse.
The context of what the Lord begins to reveal in the next section of
this book is about the ‘servant’ and his deeds, he who is prophesied to come in
the power of the Spirit. The Lord had
not revealed before in His word the things that the ‘servant’ would do.
4.1.1.
We will see in subsequent chapters that the
‘servant’ becomes the suffering servant who takes all of our iniquities upon
Himself, having His life poured out to death for us.
4.2.
Interestingly, the Lord tells us in verse 8
that the reason that He had not told the Israelites sooner about the ‘servant’
who is to come is because they were rebels from birth and he knew that they would
‘deal very treacherously’ with this knowledge had it been given sooner.
5.
VS 48:9-11 - “9 “For the sake of My name I
delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut
you off. 10 “Behold, I have refined you,
but not as silver; I have tested you in
the furnace of affliction. 11 “For My
own sake, for My own sake, I will act;
For how can My name be profaned?
And My glory I will not give to another.” - The Lord tells the captive Judeans that for
His own Name’s sake He has delayed His wrath in order not to cut them off
5.1.
Because of their sin,
5.2.
It is also for His own Name’s sake that the
Lord will also act on behalf of
5.3.
In the way that the Lord has dealt with His
people,
5.3.1.
In the Lord’s dealing with us today He is
constantly revealing His incredible patience, for though we are constantly
disobeying Him and sinning against His laws, yet He does not act in anger
towards us but rather is gentle and gives us time and space to repent of our
sins and turn from our crooked ways.
5.4.
The Lord tells the captive Judeans that He
has also worked in the circumstances of their life, or what He calls the
‘furnace of affliction,’ to refine them.
The Babylonian captivity would work as a tool of the Lord in conforming
the Israelites to righteousness.
5.4.1.
God uses fiery trials in His people’s lives
to remove the roots of rebellion from our hearts and to mold us into the image
of Christ.
6.
VS 48:12-15 - “12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even
6.1.
The Lord speaks to the Judeans, calling them
those ‘whom I have called,’ and reveals His omnipotence to them. He tells them that He is the first and the
last, and that His hand founded the earth and His right hand spread out the
heavens. Further, He tells them that
when He calls to the earth and the heavens that they stand together.
6.2.
The Lord asks the captive Judeans the
rhetorical question of whom among them has declared the things that the Lord
has declared to them? The answer of
course is, “no one.” In fact, that Judea
would be taken captive to
6.3.
The Lord tells the Judeans that He loves
Cyrus and that indeed Cyrus shall carry out His good pleasure in conquering
6.4.
The Lord promises in verse 15 that He and He
alone has indeed spoken these things and called Cyrus and brought Him to
7.
VS 48:16 - “16 “Come near to Me, listen to
this: From the first I have not spoken
in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”” - Isaiah speaks out in this
verses and tells the captive Judeans about how when this word of prophesy
concerning their deliverance from Babylon was made that he was there and that
the Lord and His Spirit sent him with this message
7.1.
Isaiah is making the personal point here to
the captive Judeans about how these prophesies that he has given to them have
come about. He tells them that he didn’t
speak in secret, but declared these things openly.
7.2.
Isaiah knew his calling before the Lord and
thus he didn’t shrink back one bit from declaring the prophetic words that he
had been given.
8.
VS 48:17-19 - “17 Thus says the Lord, your
Redeemer, the Holy One of
8.1.
We see in these verses that the Lord is in a
sense causing the captive Judeans to take ownership for their sins. Their entire history as a nation could have
been so different if only they hadn’t hardened their hearts and stiffened their
necks against the Lord. They could have
inherited all of the covenant blessings given to Abraham, however those
promises were conditional and they didn’t keep their end of the covenant with
the Lord, so they instead have all throughout their history suffered dire
consequences of their sins.
8.2.
The Lord promised continual blessings and
prosperity to His people
8.3.
The old covenant of the Old Testament which
came through Moses to the children of
9.
VS 48:20-21 - “20 Go forth from
9.1.
The Lord recounts how that when the
Israelites wandered through the wilderness for the 40 years after being
delivered from Egypt and slavery, that the Lord led them around and provided
water for them whenever they were thirsty.
The Lord tells the captive Judeans this so that they will realize that
the Lord will in fact have mercy also on them and lead them through the
wilderness in this long and dangerous trek that they will take from
9.1.1.
The Judeans needed much encouragement to make
this trek.
9.1.1.1.We
have already seen that this journey could be from 500-900 miles by foot,
depending upon the route, could take at least 4 months, and would be very
dangerous because of bandits as well as weather and terrain.
9.1.1.2.Plus,
this generation of Judeans had never known anything but life in captivity. They had never seen their temple or
sacrificed in it, and they had never seen the city of
10.
VS 48:22 - “22 “There is no peace for the
wicked,” says the Lord.” - The Lord tells
the captive Judeans that the wicked have no peace in their life
10.1.
The wicked who are being referred to in this
verse are actually the backslidden Judeans, this was not some other group far
away.
10.2.
The people had not as yet taken ownership of
their sins and repented of them. Thus,
just as this always happens with men, they had no peace in their lives.
10.3.
It would actually not be until after the
people of Judea had returned to their land from