Wednesday Bible Study: Drive By Isaiah part 11

 

This week we have three chapters that we will really drive by- but we start with one so loaded I have to step-by-step through it.  And that one is our first one chapter 40.

Chapter 40 begins with a note of comfort for those who will come after the exile.  And immediately thereafter comes the commissioning of John the Baptist, some 700 years before his birth:

Isa 40:3  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.
Isa 40:4  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough places plains.
Isa 40:5  And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord has spoken it.

And we know that's what this means because it is pointed out as such in Matthew 3:3 and elsewhere.  But usually, you see no further than this, but hear, there is an interesting 2nd part:

Isa 40:6  A voice said, "Speak!" So the man said, "What should I say?" The voice said, "People are like grass. Any glory they enjoy is like a wildflower.
Isa 40:7  When a wind from the LORD blows on them, the grass dies and the flower falls. Yes, all people are like grass.
Isa 40:8  Grass dies and flowers fall, but the word of our God lasts forever."
Isa 40:9  Zion, you have good news to tell. Go up on a high mountain and shout the good news. Jerusalem, you have good news to tell. Don't be afraid; speak loudly. Tell this news to all the cities of Judah: "Look, here is your God!"

So John's message is to contain three parts- three parts Isaiah's audience has forgotten:  The temporary nature of man; the permanence of the Word of God; and that they need to open their eyes and SEE Him.

Next, God reminds them of all He has done...

Isa 40:12  Who measured the oceans in the palm of his hand? Who used his hand to measure the sky? Who used a bowl to measure all the dust of the earth? Who used scales to measure the mountains and hills?
Isa 40:13  Who could know the LORD'S mind? Who could be his teacher or give him advice?
Isa 40:14  Did the Lord ask for anyone's help? Did anyone teach him to be fair? Did anyone teach him knowledge? Did anyone teach him to be wise?

And what they did with that knowledge...

Isa 40:17  Compared to God, all the nations of the world are nothing. Compared to him, they are worth nothing at all.
Isa 40:18  Can you compare God to anything? Can you make a picture of God?
Isa 40:19  No, but some people make statues from rock or wood, and they call them gods. One worker makes a statue. Then another worker covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it.
Isa 40:20  For the base he chooses special wood, a kind of wood that will not rot. Then he finds a good wood worker, and the worker makes a "god" that will not fall over.

They make idols and believe them to be the equal of God.  Worth equal time, equal effort, equal value.  Much like we do.  But He isn't and they/we should know better...

Isa 40:21  Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22  It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Isa 40:23  who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

And yet...

Isa 40:27  Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?

Finally, He reminds them of the true value of obedience to Him, in the same way He reminded them of His power...

Isa 40:28  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Isa 40:29  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isa 40:30  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
Isa 40:31  but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. 

 

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After the power of that chapter, the prophecy stretches out into three chapters with three main points.  41 is basically a challenge to Israel's so-called gods:

Isa 41:7  The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good"; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
Isa 41:8  But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
Isa 41:9  you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off";
Isa 41:10  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isa 41:21  Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
Isa 41:22  Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.
Isa 41:23  Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.
Isa 41:24  Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

42 shows us that the coming Messiah can do what they cannot...

Isa 42:6  "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
Isa 42:7  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Isa 42:8  I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
Isa 42:9  Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."

And yet, the people who reject God will be blinded and not understand that they are...

Isa 42:17  They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."
Isa 42:18  Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!
Isa 42:19  Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD?
Isa 42:20  He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.

And in Chapter 43, I came across something that explains, in a way, why God is setting the future up this way, with the surviving Jews entering the 1,000 year kingship of Christ before the final reckoning:

Isa 43:25  "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Isa 43:26  Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

I believe this chapter is telling them that, "yes, now you believe, because you see Me... but now, it is time to remember and repent."  They don't get the entrance to heaven by rights of surviving Armageddon any more than we do- they have a lot to learn, a lot to repent, and a millennium to get it done.