Isaiah 40:1 - Comfort, comfort my people

40:1

We are now in the second part of Isaiah. As mentioned in the introduction, most commentators, even many conservative ones, assume that this was written by someone other than Isaiah, and it is commonly referred to as deutero-Isaiah. As indicated in the introduction, I will take the view that there was a single author. However, it does seem that the primary immediate context is the Babylonian exile, looking forward to the release. At the same time it is also looking way beyond that to the coming of Christ, and even to the second coming.

Let’s just review where we have got to. In chapters 1-35 there is a lot of judgement on Judah (along with some on other nations as well), but also promises of future salvation. Assyria did overrun much of the country, but failed to conquer Jerusalem. This was avoided as a result of direct intervention by God and Hezekiah’s faith (and Isaiah’s). Now we are looking at a situation where Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were in exile. This happened because of the persistent and unrepentant sin of the nation, as told by Jeremiah, and described in 2 Kings and Chronicles. The message is that God is able to save, but Israel (and us) was completely unable to save herself. She was irredeemably sinful (without Christ), a saviour was needed. 

“Comfort, comfort my people”. The double imperative is a stress on comfort, and the people needed it! Moreover, there were no grounds in their own merits for the people to be comforted. The only grounds are in God, and that is what we are going to hear about. We can also look at this in the immediate aftermath of the Assyrian attack and defeat. Although Assyria has been prevented from taking Jerusalem, and had been completely repulsed, the land would still be in need of encouragement, as much rebuilding and recovery would be required.

Isaiah 39:3-8 - Peace in my lifetime

39:3

Isaiah then came to Hezekiah to inquire about the situation and to give a Godly perspective on it. God sends prophets to speak to leaders, for all leaders are ultimately under God’s authority, whether they like it or not whether they appreciate it or not. Isaiah inquired as to where they came from and what they wanted. Hezekiah informs Isaiah that they came from Babylon, “a distant land”. At the time Babylon was inferior to Assyria, and would be defeated by her.

39:4-8

Then Isaiah asked what the Babylonians saw in the palace, and Hezekiah says, rather proudly, that they saw everything. Isaiah then declares that the Babylonians would carry off everything from the palace, along with some of Hezekiah’s descendants. They would become eunuchs in Babylon. The city would be utterly decimated by Babylon, as indeed happened.

Hezekiah takes the word quite happily, for there would be “peace and security” in his lifetime. So what are we to make of all this/ Hezekiah had made good reforms in the land. He had just been healed, along with a promise that Assyria would not succeed in conquering Jerusalem. He now seems to be rather self-centred and self-satisfied, and then he will act in faith over the Assyrian invasion (though not without a struggle). 2 Chron 32:31 says that the Babylonian envoys were sent to test Hezekiah, to show what was in his heart, and the results were not good. Hezekiah is not actually criticised directly for letting the Babylonians see everything, it is just used as a parable of what would happen in the future. Hezekiah, like all of us, is a mixture of good and bad. There is no one who is wholly good, except God.

Ephesians 3:14-16 - I kneel before the Father

3:14,15

After the rather lengthy digression, Paul gets back to his kneeling before the Father (see v1). The “for this reason” is the wonder and majesty of God and His salvation plan. The world misrepresents God, Paul wants us to know the truth about God. Verse 15 here stresses the unity. Indeed, unity is a primary theme of Ephesians. We have had the Jewish-Gentile unity in Christ talked about in chapter 2, and later Paul will emphasise unity within the church. It is often said that religion brings division. The truth is that true unity is found only in Christ. We are all part of God’s creation, and Christ is the only means of salvation. Now someone may immediately object that in saying Christ is the only way to salvation I am being divisive, but that is looking at things from a purely human perspective, as if man decides how he can be saved. This is self-evident nonsense. Since sin against God is the primary problem, only God can save us and He decides how that is done, not us.

3:16

Paul now gets into the prayer, and, as with all his prayers, it is a biggy. He prays that we will be strengthened in our innermost being according to the riches of His glory. We are all faced with difficulties and challenges in life. In these times the key element is what we are like on the inside. When we feel weak almost anything will overcome us, but when we are strong in the Lord we can overcome anything. So we are strengthened by the Father, and this according to His riches in glory. There is a rich source of help for us! We should remember this when we are at our most needy. And this strengthening occurs through the Holy Spirit. So we see again the God-centeredness of this, this is no self-help guide! The source of our help is God, and the agent of our hep is God.

Isaiah 39:1,2 - Letters and a gift

39:1

Remember that the events related in this chapter happened before the Assyrian invasion, and provide the backdrop to the rest of Isaiah. Merodach-Baladan reigned from 722-710 BC and 705-703 BC. He was concerned to form an alliance to resist Assyria.It is worth noting that the enemy Hezekiah resisted (Assyria) fled, the enemy he invited into his palace ultimately utterly defeated Jerusalem. There is perhaps a general spiritual lesson we can learn here. When we resist the enemy he will flee (James 4:7), when we invite him into our lives he will consume us. These events happened after Hezekiah’s illness and before the Assyrian invasion (approx 701 BC). Merodach sent gifts to Hezekiah, this may have been normal diplomatic practice, and he was seeking to enlist Hezekiah in an alliance against Assyria.

39:2

Hezekiah welcomed the envoys and showed them all his wealth. Hezekiah would have been feeling vulnerable and would welcome any chance of support. We need to be very careful when we are feeling vulnerable, for we are then prone to make wrong decisions. When I feel vulnerable one of my common prayers is “Lord, protect me from my own stupidity”, it is a prayer I can recommend to you all! Hezekiah showed Merodach everything.

Ephesians 3:12,13 - In Christ, and through faith in Christ

3:12

Perhaps we take the privilege of being able to approach God for granted, not appreciating what an awesome and amazing thing it is. When we have a problem we can go and pray to God, believing that the creator and sustainer of all things will hear us and pay attention to us. Through Christ we can approach God with freedom and confidence. Now, many people who aren’t Christians can have a fear of God, feeling that if he exists at all He certainly won’t want anything to do with them. The Gentile believers would wonder how the God of Israel, the God of the Jews, would want anything to do with them. Paul assures them that in and through Christ anyone can approach God.

3:13

Paul then turns back to his own suffering and tells them not to be discouraged. Maybe the Ephesians had been putting some of their faith in Paul, so when he was in trouble it seemed that the foundation of their faith was under threat. Paul has been telling them two things. Most importantly, the foundation for their faith is Christ alone and nothing else. Secondly, God’s plan and purpose was actually working out just fine in Paul’s life.

Isaiah 38:15-22 - A poultice of figs

38:15-20

Hezekiah is describing the process God took him through. Upto verse 16 he is describing the bitterness and anguish of soul that he went through before God healed him. Then from verse 17 onwards he expresses some understanding of why God allowed him to go through this anguish. “It was for my welfare”. The process made Hezekiah a better person. Then God delivered him and cast all his sins away. Verse 18-20 reflect the sentiments expressed in some of the Psalms. The dead do not praise or thank God, for they cannot. God saves us so that we can praise Him. Then in verse 19 he speaks of making the ways of the Lord known to future generations. He finishes by talking about praising God all the days of our life in the house of the Lord (see Psalm 23).

38:21,22

We then get a few more practical details. Hezekiah had asked for a sign, hence the sign spoken of in 38:7,8. Although the healing was from God and was miraculous, there was a practical side to it as well. Isaiah had instructed “them” (presumably servants of some sort) to apply a cake of figs to the boil.

Ephesians 3:10,11 - God's intent

3:10

Things now move to a cosmic level. God’s purpose is that through the church His wisdom be made known to the “rulers and authorities” in the heavenly realms. There is a spiritual world and a material world. In the Biblical understanding the two are related, and what happens is influenced by both. If we look at the spiritual realms in a human manner (so this could be wrong, be warned!) we can imagine the powers and authorities thinking everything has gone bad, or that God made a really bad mistake. In fact, God was acting with perfect wisdom, and the outcome of things through the gospel was demonstrating this. We should also note that God’s wisdom is demonstrated through the church. Now this most definitely not mean that the church is always wise! But God works in and through the church.

3:11

This is all according to His eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus. First, God’s purpose is eternal, it was not something thought about on a whim, He did not make things up on the hoof. The fall did not come as a surprise to God, Israel’s failure was not a surprise, the Jews rejection of Christ was not a shock. God always knew what He was doing and what was going on. Secondly, His purposes are accomplished in Christ, and nowhere else. Christ is the only means of salvation.

Isaiah 38:7-14 - This is the Lord's sign to you

38:7,8

The Lord gave Hezekiah a sign that he would indeed do what He said He would do. The shadow cast by the sun would go down ten steps, and then go back those same ten steps. We needn’t worry ourselves too much about how the sign was fulfilled, the key point is that God gave Hezekiah a sign. Given that this happened before the Assyrian invasion, maybe it was also designed to build up Hezekiah’s faith that God would indeed rescue Jerusalem.

38:9-14

We then get a song or poem written by Hezekiah about the events that have just happened. The first part describes the anguish that Hezekiah went through. It seemed as if his life was coming to an end, and long before it should do so. He called to the Lord but nothing seemed to be happening.

Ephesians 3:8,9 - Grace to preach

3:8

Paul knew who he was. Elsewhere he describes himself as the chief of sinners (1 Tim 1:14), here he describes himself as “less than the least of all God’s people”. Paul definitely did not have an exaggerated view of himself, yet this did not lead him to become less of a person. For he also knew the grace that God had given to him. This grace was the source of his strength. Rather than a self-confidence he had a God-confidence. There is a lot of talk about self-esteem these days. We need to be very careful with this as we can fall into error in two ways. On the one hand it can go off into fantasy and untruth, saying we are wonderful and can be and do anything. This is complete nonsense, is unbiblical, and leads only to disillusionment. On the other hand we can we are worthless and completely useless. This is equal nonsense, and equally unbiblical. The Biblical truth is that we were created in God’s image, but we find our true worth only in Him. This then will lead to us doing amazing things. In Paul’s case this focused on preaching the “boundless riches of Christ” to the Gentiles.

3:9

Paul knew the God-given task that was his, to make known the “administration of this mystery”, ie how things work out! How all the promises and plans revealed in the Old Testament were going to be realised was hidden for many years. How could the problem of man’s sin and God’s blessing be resolved? But note that it is making known God’s plan. Evangelism can easily descend into presenting a mere human message. I may sound very nice, “your best life now”, or “let’s be nice and loving to everyone”, “let’s do our best”, but these sorts of messages are not the gospel and are completely lacking in power. The gospel is the message of calling sinners to repentance and faith in Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit and becoming a new creation.

Isaiah 38:1-6 - Hezekiah became ill

38:1-3

This incident gives, among other things, an interesting view of prophecy. Hezekiah is ill and Isaiah comes to him and says that he had better get his affairs in order because he is going to die. Hezekiah was not happy and felt that given his faithfulness he deserved better. So he prayed to God and was bitterly upset. Hezekiah’s claim to have been a good king was not without foundation - see 2 Kings 18:5.

38:4-6

The Lord gave another word to Isaiah, this time telling him to say to Hezekiah that he would live for another fifteen years. He also added that He would deliver the city from the Assyrians. With regard to the first part, how does this tie in with the first word? Prophecy is not often given just as a prediction of the future. Rather, it is usually given with a view to getting a response form the hearers, usually one of repentance.

The latter part would seem to indicate that the events related here happened before those of chapter 36 and 37. The reason chapters 36 and 37 appear before 38 and 39 is that 36 and 37 tie in with chapters 1-35 of Isaiah, whereas 38 and 39 are linked with chapters 40-66. 36 and 37 round off the prophecies of 1-35, whereas 38 and 39 provide the precursor to 40-66.

Ephesians 3:7 - A servant of the gospel

3:7

Remember that Paul here is talking about how they should not be worried about him being in prison, how it in no way negates any of the wonderful things he has spoken about in the first two chapters. Paul became a servant of the gospel. Paul’s well being is not the key thing, just as our well being (in the sense of a comfortable life) is not the key thing. We are to serve the gospel, to serve the work of Christ in saving the world. How did Paul get such a position (and how do we get such a position)? It is by grace, it is totally unmerited.  And this grace is given through God’s power. God enables us to do His work, He works through us. When we think of power we might immediately think of miracles, healings, casting out demons. These things happen and are important, but the uppermost thought in Paul’s mind is God’s power working in changing the hearts and minds of men and women in bringing them to faith in His Son.

Isaiah 37:33-38 - I will defend this city and save it

37:33-35

Isaiah now says exactly what will happen. Assyria will not enter the city. In fact, there will be no warfare at all, no arrows fired, no siege ramps built (the normal weapons of siege warfare). Instead the king will return by the way he came. Why will this happen? Because the Lord will defend the city and save it. He will do this for His own sake, and for the sake of David. 

37:36-38

The word of the Lord spoken by Isaiah is now fulfilled. The angel of the Lord put to death one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. The remaining army then withdrew back to Nineveh. Sennacherib was later killed by his two sons while worshipping an idol (Nishrok). 

We know that some years later Babylon attacked the city and did not destroy it. At the time the people thought that this was impossible, surely God would intervene! Jeremiah warned them that He would not. So why the difference? Why did God intervene this time, but not when Babylon attacked? Although Hezekiah was faithful to a degree, he did falter at the end, as we shall see, so Judah was not that much better morally speaking. Maybe two things were happening. First, God was demonstrating that He truly was the Lord, and even the most powerful armies could be defeated by Him, and this happened when the king put his trust in the Lord. Secondly, the people needed to realise that they needed to change, hence the Babylonian defeat. 

Ephesians 3:6 - Gentiles together with Israel

3:6

Paul now outlines what the “mystery” is. It is that through the gospel both the Gentiles and Israel are heirs of all the promises of God. Two of the dominant features of the Old Testament are that on the one hand it is full of promises of blessing, but on the other Israel is utterly sinful. So how could a sinful people inherit the promises of a holy God? And while there are promises that the blessings are for the whole world (Gen12:2,3 and in various of the prophets, especially Isaiah), the action is very much focused on Israel. Why do things this way? Part of the answer may be that Israel is a microcosm of the situation of the whole of humanity. For we are all sinners, Jews and Gentiles alike. At the time of Jesus and the early church it seems that the Jews were resentful that the blessings were going to the Gentiles. They had no right to them! Indeed they didn’t, but neither did Israel on her own merits. In Christ, and only in Christ can both Jews and Gentiles inherit the promises, and we are no longer rivals but brothers in Christ.

Isaiah 37:28-32 - The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this

37:28,29

“But I know ...” The Lord knew everything that Assyria did and where she was, and what she thought. The same is true for all of us. The Lord knows everything. So because of Assyria’s arrogance and pride the Lord would draw her back in. She had been allowed to conquer many lands as part of the Lord’s judgement on these places (including Israel), now Assyria would be judged. This has relevance for all nations and organisations and individuals. If we are succeeding, seeming to conquer all, whether that be in a military sense, or economic or academic, then we should ask ourselves why? The Lord grants success and we are to use it wisely and morally. If we become proud and start using the success purely for our own advantage then we can be sure that a fall is not far away.

37:30-32

Isaiah has proclaimed this message to Hezekiah. It was Hezekiah who heard the message, not the Assyrians. Hezekiah needed to understand where Assyria really stood. Now Isaiah speaks to Hezekiah about Hezekiah. Assyria had probably devastated much of the agriculture of the land, so even if the army did withdraw there would still be a problem of food. So Isaiah is addressing this issue. In the first couple of years the land would still produce sufficient food for them, after that they would be able to “sow and reap”, to reestablish things. This was symbolic of what would happen to the people of Judah, a remnant would be left that would take root and bear fruit. This is looking far ahead. “It is the zeal if the Lord Almighty that will accomplish this” (see Is 9:7). The Lord had brought the destruction, He would likewise bring the rebuilding.

Ephesians 3:3-5 - The mystery made known

3:3

In using the term “mystery” the emphasis is actually on something that is now revealed. Looking at Israel prior to Jesus the Jew-Gentile divide seemed to be set in stone, how could things ever be different? Especially, how could the Gentiles ever share fully in God’s blessings, how could the Jews and Gentiles be one? The “how” was revealed in Christ, and Paul had the task of making this known to the Gentiles. In Galatians Paul stresses that he received the gospel by revelation.

3:4,5

The gospel is a gospel of revelation. It is now something made up by men, or even discovered by men. Rather, it was revealed to us by God. No one would have thought up the gospel as a viable plan! Paul is explaining to the Ephesians (and other churches) the mystery that has now been revealed in Christ. The revelation was made to God’s “holy apostles and prophets”. We need to be careful with the word “holy”. The meaning in the Bible is one who is set apart by God for God. we tend to think of “holy” in terms of some intrinsic merit in the person themself, whereas the Biblical emphasis is on God’s purpose and choice. Earlier in reference to “apostles and prophets” I suggested that I prefered to take “prophets” as referring mainly to the Old Testament prophets, this would not seem to be the case here, unless we take it as meaning God did reveal things to the prophets, but they did not fully understand or appreciate the message, or that the emphasis is on it not being revealed to the people in general. There is a consistency of this view with 1 Pet 1:10-12. The problem I have with it referring to New Testament prophets is that we are told nothing about them proclaiming the gospel.

Isaiah 37:22-27 - Virgin daughter Zion despises you

37:22,23

Isaiah then launches into a holy diatribe against Assyria. Assyria had mocked and derided Jerusalem, but now Isaiah declares that it is Zion that scorns and mocks Assyria. When we turn to God in faith the tables are turned, but note that this turning fear into faith did not happen in an instance, but was a more tortuous process, at least from Hezekiah's perspective. 

Assyria may have thought she was mocking Jerusalem, but she was in fact mocking God. We need to have an eternal and heavenly perspective on things.

37:24,25

The root of the sin of the king of Assyria was pride. He had insulted the Lord and claimed that he had achieved his military prowess as a result of his own efforts and skill. When man thinks he is the master he will inevitably head for a fall. We are not self-sufficient and are deluded when we think that we are.

37:26,27

The Lord is the creator of all things, and He has ordained history. The doctrine of creation is vital to having a proper worldview, and this is nothing to do with whether God took 6 days of billions of years, it is far more important and relevant than that. The only reason that Assyria had been rampant was that God had decreed that it would be so. Now that does not mean Assyria was not responsible for her actions, and it does not mean she was a mere puppet, but God’s decree was being executed.

Ephesians 3:1,2 - The administration of God's grace

3:1

“For this reason, I, ...” . At this point Paul goes off at a tangent, and the “for this reason” does not resume until v14.  At this time Paul was in prison, humanly speaking he was encountering very difficult and testing times. Yet he has just been expounding to the readers of his letter how great God’s plan is, and the extent of His power and purpose for believers. How on earth can this be squared with Paul being stuck in prison? This is the thought that suddenly comes to Paul and he thinks he had better say something about it. First, he does not see himself as a prisoner of the Roman empire, but a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. His imprisonment is benefitting the Gentiles. One way in which this was happening was in his writing of these letters!

3:2

This verse strongly ties in with this being intended as a circular letter to several churches. For Paul had very strong ties with the Ephesian church, so this verse would seem a little odd if it was sent only to the church at Ephesus. “The administration of God’s grace ...” Grace is not just a passive thing in the sense that it results in our totally undeserved forgiveness and adoption into God’s family. Grace does, of course, include that, and thank goodness it does, but it also goes beyond that. Grace is active, it enables us to do things, or rather for God to do things through us, that we have no right to expect to be able to do. In Paul’s case that meant taking the gospel to the Gentiles. The gospel by any human measure should never have been able to have an impact on the Gentile world, and Paul was the last person one would choose for this task. Yet that is what happened.

Isaiah 37:20,21 - Deliver us from his hand

37:20

Now Hezekiah implores God to rescue them from the Assyrians, and the primary motive is that all the kingdoms of te earth may know that He alone is God. So how do we apply these last few verses to ourselves? In the West we see the sexual revolution apparently conquering all, imposing its destructive ideology upon all of society. And we see that area after area of life has succumbed to the onslaught, and we see its destructive effects. We should not deny the reality of what is happening, but we should also see beyond it. Christ is Lord, the culture is not. And we are all His creation. The people being harmed by the sexual ideology are Christ's creation. We should pray on the basis of faith and truth.

37:21

Previously it was Hezekiah who sent officials to Isaiah, this time it is Isaiah who sent a message to Hezekiah. In the church we should not have a dependency culture, nor an independence culture, but an interdependency culture. There are things we can do ourselves, there are things where we need the help of others, and where we can help others. As Paul says in Galatians 6, each must carry his own burden and we must bear each others burdens (Gal 6:2,5). "Because you have prayed to me". Prayer is a powerful thing, and there are things that God will only do in response to prayer.

Ephesians 2:20-22 - A dwelling in which God lives

2:20

This household is built on the foundation of the “apostles and prophets”. Apostles here refers to the likes of Peter, John and Paul. God entrusted them with the message of the gospel, and they preached the gospel and established churches on the basis of the gospel. Prophets could be New Testament prophets, but we are actually given very little information on what they did, certainly no detailed information on what they said or taught. Or it could refer to the Old Testament prophets. We do, of course, know in great detail what they said, and they were pointing the way forward to Christ. 1 Peter 1:10-12 would tend to favour this latter interpretation. And Christ is the chief cornerstone. Everything centres around Jesus and hinges on Him. If a false teaching comes in you will find that it removes Christ from the central place that Scripture gives Him.

2:21

Everything is built around Jesus and in Jesus. The “whole building” is joined together in Him. Christ alone is the one who holds everything together, He is the source of our unity, and He alone is the source of our unity. If we seek affirmation or identity in anything else then we are are going in the wrong direction. The Jews at the time had the temple in Jerusalem to look to, but it would soon be destroyed. The true temple is the church built with Christ as its foundation, and infused by Him in every aspect of its being.

2:22

The church is not something that has been built, but something that is being built. Jesus said “I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). And He is not building lots of little churches, but one church. And we are being built as a dwelling in which God lives. We are to be the home of God! God’s purpose is that He dwells with His people and we dwell with Him.

Finding God's peace?

In the gospels we Jesus tells us that we are much more important that birds and animals (eg Matt 6:26), and that the birds are actually wiser than us because they do not worry. In Isaiah 43:20 we find a similar lesson:

The wild animals honour me,

    the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness

    and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

Now jackals and wild animals were not nice and cuddly, yet God provides for them and they seem to know about God’s provision better than we do. By the way, if you have seen the recent news about Union Theological Seminary and their praying to plants, don’t worry I am not about to suggest we go down a similar route!

Jesus’ words in Matt 6:26 are part of His teaching on not worrying, and yet we find this so hard to put into practice. But then look at Isaiah 43:21 where it says:

the people I formed for myself

    that they may proclaim my praise.

We were created for God, to proclaim His praise. We were formed for God. That is our identity. We need to be God centered, otherwise we will never find nor fulfil our true purpose in life. Examine your thoughts and feelings, especially if times are tough or you are feeling uncertain about the future. What are our thoughts focused on? More than likely, “how is this going to affect me”. “Me” there may well include our families. Now think “I am here for God’s purposes”. That puts a whole different complexion on it, one of which is to relieve a whole lot of the anxiety. We know that the Bible says, Jesus says, God will always provide our needs. But if we think along the lines “I am here to fulfil my purpose, and God will help me” you will not actually find a whole lot of peace. You may claim promises in the Bible, but your claims are bogus. On the other hand, if we think “I am here for God’s purposes to be fulfilled, and He will provide everything I need” then we will find God’s peace, and we will find the promises of the Bible are indeed true.

Isaiah 37:17-19 - Give ear, Lord

37:17

Then Hezekiah tells God about the things that Sennacherib has been saying. Now God, of course, knows all this, and the prayer is perhaps as much a matter of Hezekiah reminding himself of the truths. One aspect of prayer is not telling God what to think, but getting our own thinking straightened out. Sennacherib had ridiculed God, and Hezekiah did not expect God to stand idly by, just letting this pass.

37:18,19

Hezekiah's faith was not based on ignoring the reality of what had happened. He knew full well that Assyria had indeed conquered many nations, and their gods had proved utterly useless. But the reason for this was these "gods" were no gods at all, but merely the works of man made out of wood and stone.  So they were destroyed. Look at the difference here. The way things are supposed to be: God has created us and we ae to worship Him. The way things often are: We "create" something and we worship it, saying "this thing I have created will save us". Also note what faith is and what it is not. Hebrews says it is evidence of things unseen. This does not mean that we ignore or deny the reality of what we see, but that we see beyond it. It is the difference between a materialistic worldview, which says that what we see is all there is, and a theistic worldview.

Ephesians 2:18,19 - You are no longer foreigners and strangers

2:18

“For through Him we both have access to the Father by the one Spirit”. This is a wonderfully trinitarian verse, with Father, Son and Holy Spirit all featuring, and all working together in harmony. There are two other key things to notice from this verse. The first is that it is through Christ that we have access. No ethnicity nor religious practice gain us access, it is Christ alone. Then, and perhaps this is the most important point from this verse, the “prize” is “access to the Father”. God Himself is the prize! It is not taking pride in being Jewish or Gentile, in being black or white, or any other distinction we might draw between peoples, it is having access to the Father, it is knowing God. If the focus is put anywhere else then we are badly mistaken, and we are offering a cheapened gospel (which is no gospel at all).

2:19

We are “no longer foreigners and strangers”. There is something called “imposter syndrome” where one feels that one doesn’t really have the right to be in a certain job, or to hold a certain position. We can sometimes have the same feeling about our place in God’s kingdom. Paul assures them that they rightly belong in the kingdom of God. We are fellow citizens with all of God’s people. The grounds for this are placed firmly in Christ alone (2:16), not in ourselves. Our only part is to repent and believe. We are members of God’s household. We are members of the household of the king! We need to appreciate the highly privileged position we are in. But we do not use this privilege to feather our own nest, but to serve the king and the world.

Isaiah 37:14-16 - And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord

37:14

Previously on receiving the threats from the Assyrian commander Hezekiah had gone to Isaiah. Now he goes directly to God himself. He prays to the Lord, laying out before the Lord the letter from Sennacherib. He spreads out the letter before the Lord, in the temple of the Lord. We see here two things, One is why was there a temporary withdrawal, why did God not just destroy the Assyrian army there and then? At least part of the reason is that God wanted Hezekiah to use his own faith. In our own lives God does not just want to rescue us, but He wants to make us into people who overcome, who learn to overcome fear ourselves.  The second lesson is how we can go about this. Hezekiah went to the temple, he went to God’s place. We need to go to be alone with God, to kneel before Him. But Hezekiah was not pretending the situation did not exist, rather he laid out before the Lord the threats from Sennacherib. We do not pretend our fears do not exist, but we go before God, focusing on Him, and lay our fears out before Him. The next verses will reveal more of what we should do.

37:15,16

Having laid out the problem before the Lord, Hezekiah then prayed.. He begins by declaring who God is. The ark of the covenant had cherubim on it, which were winged angel like creatures (1 Sam 4:4; Ex 25:17-22). Then he says that God is Lord over all the kingdoms. Remember that Jesus said all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matt 28:18). God is the God of Israel, but He has authority over all nations. Sometimes people talk about Christianity in terms of “I believe this, you believe that and they believe the other”. This is a totally wrong worldview, as if all beliefs are somehow equal. They are not! Christ alone is Lord. Moreover, God is the creator of all things. This puts life in a totally different perspective, and we need these truths to utterly permeate our being.

Ephesians 2:16,17 - He came and preached peace

2:16

How did Christ achieve this peace? He reconciled both of them to God. So see that the focus was not reconciling them to each other, but to God. Then they can have peace with each other. All of us have sinned against God, even if you are a victim of oppression your biggest problem is that you have sinned against God. Jesus ended this problem on the cross, and put to death “their hostility”.

2:17

“He came and preached ...” Now of course Jesus had not been to Ephesus during His earthly mission, but the gospel is the gospel of Jesus. So the same message was preached both to the Gentiles and to the Jews. There was no difference. The same message is preached to male and female, to black and white, to rich and poor. Peter says that when we preach we should do so as if we are preaching the very words of God, and our task is to present the message of Christ, not any invention of men.

Isaiah 37:10-13 - Do not let the God you depend on deceive you

37:10-13

The Assyrian army was withdrawing for a time, but the commander tells Jerusalem that this is only a temporary respite, eventually the city would be destroyed. The commander tells Hezekiah not to think that God has saved the city. He reminds him of what has happened to all the other countries and cities, and he names specific examples. These are no idle words that he is giving. We need to be aware that the enemy will seem to be able to back up his “project fear” with seemingly good evidence. So what is the difference? Why would things be different for Jerusalem, and why should things be different for us? It is that the “gods” of the other nations were nothing at all, they were false gods. We belong to the one true God. There is another thing to bear in mind. Jerusalem was saved at this point, years later when the Babylonians attacked the city was utterly destroyed. So what was the difference? Trust in God. The reason they were rescued here is that there was a turning to God, a trusting in Him. Later, as Jeremiah points out, they put their trust in the city, in the temple (Jer 7:4). We will so easily start to put our trust in the wrong place.

Ephesians 2:14,15 - He Himself is our peace

2:14

Christ is our peace. Why does Paul go on about this? It is because given half a chance we will look for some other means of resolving an issue. We will focus on racial hatred as the cause, or something else. We will try and paint one group as the victim, and the other as the oppressors. Now there is racial hatred, people do oppress others, but the root cause is our sin against God, and unless that is resolved there will be no progress, no peace. Christ has resolved the Jew-Gentile divide by making one people. We are united in Christ. Christ destroyed the wall of hostility. Note that there is no attempt to diminish the seriousness of the division, but in Christ it is destroyed.

2:15

When we read comments about the Law in the New Testament we need to be very careful to read them in context. For instance, Jesus said in Matt 5:18 that not one jot or tittle would pass away from the Law. So on that basis alone you might think we had to follow all the rules and regulations. Then you have verses such as this which say “by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands ...”, and if that was the only statement we were going to take into consideration we would say that the Law no longer has any relevance whatsoever. Here Paul is looking purely at the way in which the Law separated out the Israelites from all other nations (which was one of the prime purposes of the food and similar laws). The Law was fulfilled in Christ, and the purpose was to create a new humanity encompassing both Jews and Gentiles. This principle of unity is vital. It was important then, it is important now with the concept of victimhood and identity politics seeming to be the most prominent in society today.

Isaiah 37:4-9 - Do not be afraid

37:4

Despite the situation, Hezekiah has not lost all hope. His remaining hope is in the name of God. The Assyrian commander (the Rabshakeh, ESV) had mocked God. He knew that Lord had heard these words, and his hope was that God would respond to them by defeating the Assyrians for the sake of His Name. Therefore Hezekiah pleads with Isaiah to pray to the Lord for the sake of the remnant. He uses the term remnant because all the outlying cities had already been taken.

37:5,6

The king, officials and, presumably, the people are in a panic, but Isaiah remains calm. Remember that in chapter 8 he was told not to fear what they fear. Isaiah instructs them not to be afraid because of what they hear. We need to have the same attitude. We should not be afraid because of what we hear, not the anxious thoughts within our heads.

37:7-9

God, through Isaiah, tells them what He will do. God will cause him to return to his own land. He would hear a rumour and this would cause the Assyrians to leave. We are then told how this actually happened. We look at situations and think we fully understand what is happening and how things will work out. This usually means they will work out very badly. But we don't know everything, and God has plans that we do not know about. Why doesn't He tell us so we can save ourselves a lot of worry? Because He wants us to trust in Him for who He is, that is a far greater prize.

Ephesians 2::12,13 - Without hope and without God

2:12

As Paul did at the start of chapter 2 when talking about how we are in Christ, he starts here be reminding them of their previous situation. They were separated from Christ and excluded in Israel. They had no connection with the promises of God in the Old Testament. They were without hope and without God in the world. So Paul is reminding them of their previous state, and he talks about things that are specific to their relationship to Israel (ie they were excluded) and to their general state (ie the state they were in regardless of Israel). In the Old Testament there is a clear distinction between Israel and everyone else (there are also many promises and prophecies that things would extend to the whole world). They were not part of Israel, and so excluded from many things. But even if they had never heard of Israel, or if Israel had not existed, they were still in a mess. For they were separated from Christ. They did not know God and were without hope.

2:13

Once we were far off, but no longer! We have now been brought near in Christ, and this has been achieved by the blood of Christ. Indeed, the Jews were separated from God by the Law as well, because of their sin. Christ is the only means of reconciliation between man and God, and between man and man. The whole root of alienation is our separation from God because of our sin. Walls of division between men are a a fruit of the alienation from God. It is only by the blood of Christ that this division is resolved.