Trusting God in Hard Times — Isaiah 55

  • Have you had times of darkness in your life?
  • We work through how we should read Old Testament passages so that they speak accurately into our situation./n-God says, “just hold on to me and I will never forsake you.”

 

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Video cover image by shrimpo1967 Wikimedia Commons

Trusting God in Hard Times — Isaiah 55

Reading the Bible in a way that lets it truly speak into our own lives

  1. Read it in the historical context
    and see how it fits the Big Story of the Bible
  2. Pay attention to N.T. quotations from it
  3. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

1.Historical context

  • Isaiah falls into two halves
    1. Chapters 1–43 are set in Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah
      • The Northern kingdom is taken off to captivity, but Judah in the south survive
    2. Chapters 44–66 are written to a Judah in captivity in Babylon
      It is the same Isaiah, but he is writing prophetically forward in time
      • His prophecies are so accurate that unbelieving scholars have claimed it much be another person
      • But there are lots of indications in the writing style that the book is a unity with a single writer
  • So the second half of Isaiah is addressed to the nation of Israel in captivity
    • they have been there a long time
    • everything looks black
    • homeland destroyed
    • home city is burned with fire
    • the temple is gone
  • The two empires who held them captive were brutally powerful and relentless
  • Here are some sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal

Image source: Carole Raddato

hunting

hunting

Image source: Carole Raddato

lions in

lions in

Image source: Carole Raddato

Nineveh

Nineveh

Image source: Carole Raddato

  • They were there because of their own evil.
    • So their first temptation was hopelessness – to give up
  • They were covered in guilt and shame, and into this context Isaiah speaks these words:

Isaiah 53

  1. He was despised and rejected by men;
      a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    and as one from whom men hide their faces
      he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
  2. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
      yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
  3. But he was wounded for our transgressions;
          he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
          and with his stripes we are healed.
  4. All we like sheep have gone astray;
          we have turned every one to his own way;
    • and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
  • The temptation was to forget about God and the promises he made and to become like the nations
    • to take on their gods
    • to forget about following the true God
    • not to believe that God was going to be faithful in the end to his promises to Abraham
  • These people were there justly—because of their sin—and yet these beautiful gospel promises come to them

Isaiah 54

  1. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed!
          Do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated!
    For you will forget about the shame of your youth;
          you will no longer remember the disgrace of abandonment.
  2. For your husband is the one who made you —
          the LORD who commands armies is his name.
    He is your protector, the Holy One of Israel.
          “The God of the entire earth”, he is called
  • Isaiah’s message was that people should hang on to the promises
  • The only way they can believe is by faith because there is nothing that they can see
  • And into this context he speaks some of the most beautiful words that are to be found in Scripture:

Isaiah 54

  1. “Indeed, the LORD will call you back
          like a wife, abandoned and in depression,
    like a young wife when she has been rejected,”
          says your God.
  2. “For a short time I abandoned you,
          but with great compassion I will gather you.
  • These people are suffering, but he says “I’m committed to you!” I your husband, I am wedded to you
    This culminates in these amazing words:

Isaiah 54

  1. “Though the mountains be shaken
          and the hills be removed,
    yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
          nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the LORD, the one who has compassion on you.
  2. “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
          I will build you with stones of turquoise,
    your foundations with sapphires.”
  • This is the Jerusalem that is burned and rubble. And he says that he is going to...
  • So even though they had fallen away from God and were paying the price,
    • God has not stopped loving them.
  • This brings us to the climax of the sermon today
    • Some of the most beautiful words in the Bible
    • And I want you to take them in personally, and know how to receive them

The Call: Isaiah 55

  1. Come, all you who are thirsty,
          come to the waters;
    and you who have no money,
          come, buy and eat.
    Yes, come, buy without money
          and without price, wine and milk.
  2. Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
    and your wages for what does not satisfy?
  • Does this remind you of any passage in the N.T.?
    • Woman at the well.
  • But also:

John 7

  1. On the last day of the feast, the great day,
    Jesus stood up and cried out,
    “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
  2. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
    ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
  • These verses from Isaiah were probably read out at this feast!

Response (Obedience)

  1. Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
          and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
  2. Incline your ear, and come to me.
          Hear, and your soul shall live;
    and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
          the faithful love promised to David.

The Promise

  1. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
          a leader and commander for the people.
  2. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
          and nations who do not know you shall run to you,
    because of the LORD your God,
          and the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
  • So we see three things in these verses:
    • v.1–2 The Call
    • v.2–3 The Response
    • v.4–5 The Promise
  • Then once again he gives a call—well known verses.

Call (again)

  1. Seek the LORD while he may be found,
          call upon him while he is near.
  2. Let the wicked forsake his way,
          and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
    let him return to the LORD,
          and he will have mercy on him;
    and to our God,
          for he will abundantly pardon.

3. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

  • Maybe you have some situation in your life where it seems like it is dark
  • Have you seen darkness in your life?
  • The problem in a situation like this is that we can’t see how God is going to do it.
  • Sometimes we say, there is no way God can help me. It is just too much of a mess
    • And this is God’s answer:

Isaiah 55 cont’d

  1. For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
  2. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
          so are my ways higher than your ways,
          and my thoughts than your thoughts.
  3. For as the rain comes down,
          and the snow from heaven,
          and does not return there,
                but waters the earth,
                and make it bring forth,
                      and make it sprout
                      so that it may give
                            seed to the sower
                            and bread to the eater,
  • (staircase parallelism)
  • These people were about to see the most remarkable event happen
  • These people were about to see the Emperor, Cyrus,
    • allow them to go back home
      • Give them money
    • pay for the rebuilding
    • offer them military protection
      • in an extraordinary way
      • A way that they would never have believed had you told them
  • God applies this:

Isaiah 55 cont’d

  1. So shall my word be that goes forth
    from my mouth;
          it shall not return to me void,
    but it shall accomplish what I please,
          and it shall prosper in the thing
          for which I sent it.
  2. For with joy you shall go out,
          and in peace be led forth;
    the mountains and the hills shall burst into song before you,
          and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
  • Then he ends by telling them about the extraordinary result of this word going forth
    • They will go out of Babylon with joy, such joy that it is as if the mountains themselves are bursting into song
    • These people are so exuberant at what God has done

Isaiah 55 cont’d

  1. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
          and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
    and it shall be to the LORD for a name,
          for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Everest

Everest

Image source: shrimpo1967

Isaiah 54

  1. “Though the mountains be shaken
          and the hills be removed,
    yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
          nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the LORD, the one who has compassion on you.
  • If you are not a Christian
    • This is an invitation that is offered to you...
  • Ask him to forgive you for doubting him
    • Lord forgive me for trying to solve my problems in a way that I know is not right”
  • and he will come through, beyond your wildest dreams!
    • In that day when he comes in Glory, none of us can begin to imagine the joy we will have
  • Remember, God is working, and he never breaks his promises.

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