Introduction

Note: If this post seems disjointed or hard to follow, that is because it is. I took the raw transcript of my lecture notes and posted them. And the raw notes this week were only meant to jar my memory. Sorry if they are hard to follow.

What's going on in the world can be pretty scary. Egypt, etc. Sometimes it seems as though things are out of control. Like perhaps God is not able to keep thing in order...

[Other free form content]

Noise. Our lives are full of it these days, if you hadn't notices. The more noise the better it seems. And the more one becomes used to the noise, the more uncomfortable it is when there is silence.

Noise has a tendency to distract from any type of deep thinking. Any type of self-analysis or contemplation. Noise keeps us from facing reality.

Noise comes in many forms in our day: music, TV, movies, Internet, Chat, Social Media, talk radio, reality TV, amusements, etc.

Did you happen to see the Superbowl yesterday? I observed the selection of upcoming entertainment from our friends in Hollywood. They are serving up nothing but noise in the form of movies that totally avoid any sense of reality. Every single one of the previews was some sort of Sci-Fi thriller, blended fantasy, non-reality type of movie. I was amazed and dismayed. Not that I don't enjoy a non-realistic movie now and again, but it just seemed that someone wants us to avoid any type of dealings with the real world.

That's what noise tends to do – help us escape the inevitability of reality.

Ask yourself tonight:

What are you trying to drown out by the “noises” in your life?
What “noise” do you need to put out of your life in order to hear from God?
How much time are you spending in silence before God each day?

The Quality Test (Isaiah 41:1-20)

The Call To Silence (41:1)

Come ponder, consider, and face reality. Stop all the noise and distractions that are keeping you from the truth of the way things are.

He's calling the court to order. To focus in on the problem at hand. The problem that faces all humanity – his inability to control the events of history.

Renewal of Strength

The call to renew strength hearkens back to 40:31 where Isaiah points out that those whose faith (hope) is in the LORD (YHWH) will renew their strength (or have their strength renewed by the LORD).

And so here, the Lord is calling the nations to silence and to face up with the reality of where their hope lies. The object of their faith. And the strength of that object to reliably deliver on the promise of hope.

The Place of Judgment

God is calling the nations forward to present their case, if you will, at the place of judgment. God will bring about an event that will force the nations to stop, be silent, contemplate where their hope and strength lies, and ultimately to present their case for why their faith is in such a god as theirs.

God's Servant, Cyrus (41:2-4)

In these three verses, God is pointing out that He is the very One bringing this conqueror onto the scene. He asks the question twice and then answers toward the end of verse 4.

This is clearly the work of God bringing this about. But there were many who claimed to come in the power of their gods to conquer and defeat nations. Yes, but this notification comes more than 150 years before the conqueror is born. No other god had been able to do that. Man's claim as to the source of his power is one thing. But when the specifics of the conqueror are foretold in such detail before they happen, one better take note!

God's Purpose In Sending Cyrus

As we looked this week, God had a purpose in sending Cyrus. He put upon this great king's heart the idea to return the exiles back to Jerusalem to build a temple.

We've already read that God's purpose was to put Judah into exile for 70 years due to the fact that they had broken covenant with God – they had become recipients of the curses tied to the conditional Deuteronomic covenant (Exodus 19:3-6; 24:1-8; Deuteronomy 29:1-30:3).

God had set forth laws in this covenant that if Israel obeyed them, they God would bless them. But if they broke covenant with God, he would bring in nations to subdue them. This happened over and over again until finally, God sent the southern kingdom into exile.

He did this to preserve and refine a remnant who would preserve the line of Abraham in order to fulfill His unconditional covenant with him. The Abrahamic covenant was not predicated on man's performance but on God's faithfulness alone. He would carry it out despite man's unfaithfulness. That covenant was the through Abraham's Seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed.

We've already seen glimpses of that blessing in the book of Isaiah. The coming seed of Abraham would be called Emmanuel, God with us.

You see, the Bible is really quite a simple book in one sense. It is a book that reveals God, His creation, the fall of man, and God's plan to redeem His people. That's the high level outline.

And so, as we look at the descriptions here in this chapter, we must note that God is demonstrating that He will take every necessary to completely fulfill His unconditional covenant. He can't not be faithful to His word.

And so Cyrus serves as a test of the nations fortitude while at the same time displaying God's sovereignty over all events to bring about His will in redeeming His people.

Note: These Israelites that were going to return from the exile would eventually fail to keep God's covenant. But there was a time coming where the Deuteronomic would no longer be extant. It would be fulfilled in the coming Seed of Abraham. The Messiah would be the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic covenant and the Deuteronomic covenant. And He would usher in a New Covenant in His blood.

A Pagan Response (41:5-7)

Verse 5-7 show the response of those outside of a covenant relationship with God. This is certainly a description of the futility of hope outside of YHWH.

The events are certainly worthy of fear and trembling. But look at the way the nations gain their courage. While those who wait on and hope in the Lord renew their strength, these people must conjure up strength from some fictitious source.

They help each other and then say “Be Strong”.

This is the ultimate in “Power of Positive Thinking” religion. Where somehow my thoughts and hopes can determine my destiny.

If I need wealth, then thoughts of wealth will get me there. If I need health, then those types of thoughts must be pondered.

Hasn't this type of pagan and superstitious thought processes even made it into our “Christian” ideas in the west?

What really is being said here is, “have hope in hope”. Put your trust in trust. We are all in this together.

And then we see the types of gods that come out of this type of thinking. They are the fabrication of the mind of the wishful thinker. They become the creator and their god is the created. Their god is formed in their image and he serves their purposes.

But he can do nothing to quell the fear and terror of the reality of life. He can do nothing to fill the emptiness of a life outside of a covenant with God.

Nothing man can build or imagine or embrace is able to fill the emptiness brought on by alienation from God his Creator.

And so the quality of man's gods is shown when faced with reality. When good times are gone – when the ability to ascribe my successes to a god of my making is no longer there – then I am faced, in silence, with the startling fact of my misplaced faith.

This is God's doing. Those outside a covenant with God are not exempt from answering to God.

Just because man claims not to believe in the reality of God doesn't mean he will not have to answer to that reality. He will. Everyone will.

True Quality (41:8-20)

All people are faced with the same life situations eventually. Eventually we all will have the foundations of our faith tested.

But these verses show a completely different type of relationship between the true God and his people.

It is God who is in the active role. He is the initiator. He is the One who makes His people who they are and in the situation they are are.

He provides the position of strength and security.

8-10 points out that their relationship to God is His doing:

chosen by God
gathered by God
called by God
not rejected by God
God with us (verse 10)

Their identity is:

servants (verses 8 & 9)

Principle: The day of judgment will reveal the quality of one's god(s).

Do Not Fear (41:11-14)

In verse 10 God had called them not to fear because He is with them and He is their God.

He continues on in 11-14 to describe why they should not fear:

Nothing can touch you outside of passing through me (41:11)

This is the LORD (YHWH) their Redeemer – He has conquered their greatest enemy, sin, so what is their to fear?

A God of Promise (41:17-20)

Verses 17-20 shows the promises of God and that He is actively involved in the lives of His people. He is not a static god, like the idols, but one who carries out His promises to sustain His own.

[look at some of the “I will” statements]

God's Primary Reason (verse 20)

It is God's glory and renown that is forefront here. He is displaying His glory through the lives and His work in and through His people.

He is doing what is obviously impossible. No onlooker would say that coincidence played a part or that Israel brought this about.

The same is true today if you belong to God. When He answers your prayers, He is showing himself to be faithful, but it is for the purpose of bringing himself glory.

When He gives an impossible task to you and then accomplishes it through you, it isn't so that you can appear as a success, but so He is glorified in you.

Israel was a light to the Gentiles and now God's church is a light to the world. Not because we generate our own light but that we reflect the light of Messiah as He lives out his purposes through His people.

When people hear the message of the gospel and when they see the transforming effect it has on the regenerated person – desert blossoming, springs of water where their once was death, they know that this is no new humanistic self-help therapy. I has to be God at work in a life.

Principle: God's people reap the benefit of God's promises for God's glory.

Applications:

Where does your hope reside, in what God has done for you or what you are doing for God?
How well are you living up to the job description of 'servant'?

The Performance Test (Isaiah 41:21-29)

Often, when building software, there are functional requirements dealing with specific functionality that must be performed by the software in order to be acceptable to the customer. Many times there are also performance requirements. Requirements that specify minimal expectations in regard to software's performance under a load (e.g., number of transactions per second, latency – number of milliseconds from receipt of a message until a response, etc.)

In these final verses of chapter 41, God is calling the nations to bring forward their gods. God's to which the nations have boasted and given credit for many things. But now is the real performance load testing. Now He calls them to the test of time – past and future.

Forget the claims of the past and present actions. I want to see some explanations of past events and future ones.

Bring On Some Fear (41:21-23)

God had previously called the nations to consider what He was going to do. And when it came to pass, it brought fear, naturally.

Now He calls on their gods to do something, good or bad, so that fear may abound.

This is an impossible challenge and a mockery of what these people had designed. Not only could they not cause something to happen, they couldn't even explain the past.

We hear all the time about supposed predictions in our day:

Jesus was supposed to have come multiple times, just in the past century.
There have been men and women claiming all sorts of things in the name of God in our lifetime, but not coming true.

What does that say about these 'prophets'. They are certainly not speaking for God (YHWH). So they must be speaking for their perceived god or for their own edification.

God is not pleased. He is not being served.

And how many in our day are filled with fear due to these prognosticators. It is foolish to fear if their predictions are not from God.

But many continue to listen to them. They are all over the radio and TV. Whatever god they are pleasing, it is not our god.

And their performance record is nothing like our God's either.

You see, the false gods (and their prophets) can make claims all day long. And they can even be vague enough such that it appears as if they are true.

But only God is able to tell the future and have the power to bring it about.

Because false gods are less than nothing, worthless, and those who follow them are detestable. That's harsh language, isn't it. But being detestable to God is where we all stand were it not for his redemption.

Closing Arguments (41:25-29)

God's closing arguments point to His ability to bring about what He has planned. He refers to Cyrus once more, coming in from the north (this one from the rising sun – the east).

In verse 26 He points out that it wasn't told by anyone else. Not other god or prophet mentioned this coming conqueror. Here he is addressing the nations and their gods (26b).

But God's messenger was “spot on” – he told it in Zion and it was even written down.

Isaiah's prophecy was recorded for all to see – preserved until the time of its occurrence.

27-28 – but none of the nations have any such counselor or evidence. They are silent before God because they know from whence their gods came.

Principle: One's god is only as good as his ability to carry out his plans.

The true God is always faithful to carry out His plans.