Isaiah 44:9-23 - Deluded Fools

We become like what we worship. If we worship God, then we become more Christlike, if we worship idols we become worthless like the idols. The Bible is consistent in pointing out the stupidity of idol worship. The idols were made by men, so how can they possible be of any help? The whole thing was a human enterprise. 

There was a glaring inconsistency in idol worship, yet at the time idol worship would have looked very impressive. Whole nations were constructed around the worship of idols. Similarly there is a glaring inconsistency in the materialist worldview. Superficially it looks much more sophisticated than idol worship, but it is in reality no better. The materialist view says that dust gave birth to life, it is fact pantheistic in its outlook. The logical conclusion of materialism is that everything is meaningless. This includes the pronouncements of materialists that there is no God, and that what we see is all that there is. As it says in v20, the materialist is deluded.

We must remember that it is God who created us, and He will not forget us. This is a fundamental truth, and one that should guide our lives.

Isaiah 44:6-8 - He alone is God

Israel was constantly turning to idols instead of trusting in the Lord. Trusting in idols was what all the other nations did. We too are tempted to trust in the things that the world around us trusts in. This is not a wise thing to do. God is God. He created everything, He knows everything, He is more powerful than everything.  Here He reminds Israel again that He alone knows the future. We need to remind ourselves constantly who God is. We are not following a teaching, we are not following a set of ideas, we are not following a man-made religion. We are following the living God, the one true Lord.

Now when we read of God foretelling the future we need to be careful that we do not read this as fate, or as meaning that nothing can be done to change the future. It is equally clear from the Bible that whenever people respond to God, things change. So how can this be and at the same time God know what is going to happen? Well, God is outside of time, beyond time. He has already seen everything happen. We need to take heart from the fact that He is in control, and we also need to know that we do matters. The decisions that we make count, it is always worth responding to God.

Isaiah 44:1-5 - Pouring out of the Spirit

There are three threads running through Isaiah. 

• What Israel was meant to be. 
• What Israel actually was.
• How God was going to deal with the problem

Chapter 43 has just ended with a reminder of Israel's failure. However, this reminder of her failure is not a cause for despair, but a call to listen more closely to God. It is the same for all men. The conviction that we are sinners is not the end of the matter, rather it is a wake-up call that we need to go to God for the solution.

God reminds them that He has chosen them, and He is the One who made them in the womb. So they should not be afraid. 

This is followed by the promise to pour out water on thirsty land, and to pour out His Spirit on their offspring. The NT refers to the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2:23, Eph 1:23). There are two key elements to God's work of salvation. There is the forgiving of sins, accomplished by the work of Jesus on the cross, and then the transformation of our lives by the Holy Spirit.

Many descendants will rise up. At the time being an Israelite was a mark of shame because of all that had happened, but in the days to come they would be glad to be called God's people. There will be a mark on their hand saying that they belong to the Lord. Verses like this should be borne in mind when considering verses in Revelation about people having the mark of the beast on their foreheads and hands. There is a lot of talk about it being implanted chips and the like. I am not so sure about this, I think it is much more about an attitude of heart, about a commitment, whether we are committed to the Lord or to the world.

Isaiah 43:14-28 - A New Thing

This section makes it clear that the prophecy is directed against what will happen to Babylon. Babylon would become a very powerful nation, but she would also become proud. God would bring the nation down, she would have to acknowledge that God is the Lord.

God then reminds them of what He did when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. This was great, but the people were not to dwell on the past, for God was going to do a new thing. Having a correct attitude to the past is so important. There are many things we can learn from the past, indeed we must learn from the past. We must learn from our mistakes, and we must learn from the times we experience God's help in various situations. But we must also be ready for God to do new things. When Jesus came the Jews were not "forgetting the former things", they were not looking for a new thing. Our God is a God who does new things.

He makes streams flow in the desert. He provides for His people in a wilderness. So even if you feel as if you are in a wasteland at the moment, the Lord can still rescue you. He can come to where you are and make a way in the desert.

This demands a response from the people. If we want to know God's salvation then we need to turn to the Lord, we need to call upon Him. We need to come to terms with our sin, and we need to call on the Lord. Otherwise there is no salvation.

Isaiah 43:8-13 - Only God is in control

Back In Isaiah 6 God spoke of the people being ever seeing but never perceiving (Is 6:9-10). Now we see this state of affairs coming to an end. Those who have eyes but are blind will be lead out. 

The nations could not, and cannot, predict what God will do. Man is not in control of the future, no matter how hard he tries. All of us do well to remember this. We seek to be in control, but this is only a recipe for frustration, for we are men and not God. We do not have the capacity to be in total control. There are areas of life that we have responsibility for, and we must take up responsibility for that, but for the rest we can and must trust the Lord.

The Lord is God, and there is no one and no thing remotely like Him, and we are His witnesses. This means both that we tell others, and that God will act in our lives in ways which demonstrate His sovereignty over all.

Isaiah 43:1-7 - Salvation

There are times when we do well to remember that chapters and verses (section headings) were not part of the original Scriptures. Often they are helpful, but at other time they put a false division between sections. This is one of them. Chapter 43 comes right after chapter 42. God has just told the Israelites about their sin, and the judgement they had suffered because of it. 

This sin had got them in a mess, and they had experienced the Lord's judgement upon themselves. It is a to a sinful people, a people under judgment, that God brings His message of salvation. Exactly the same applies today. The Good News is good news for sinners, and it is only when we acknowledge our sin that we can appreciate the good news.

Even though Israel had sinned, God had redeemed her and called her by name. She still belonged to the Lord. They would be rescued from their plight. This might seem impossible. We may seem to have to go through impossible situations in order to reach safety, but even though we will have to pass through the waters and the fire, they will not overwhelm us and will not consume us.

The Lord will do amazing things in order to save us. The words about "giving people in exchange for you" were literally true. God set Cyrus to set the people free. God will act on our behalf. 

The words on bringing them from all points of the compass indicate that God is looking beyond the immediate rescue from Babylon. We were created for His glory, this is our purpose and our destiny in life. 

Once again, we need to get a true perspective on life. We need to realise that we are at the centre of God's plans.

Isaiah 42:18-25 - Come to terms with your own sin

While the second part of Isaiah is focused mostly on salvation and "good news", it does also include elements of judgement, and convicts Israel of her sin. Similarly, when we are saved there will be times when the Holy Spirit is highlighting areas in our life that need to change. This is normal.

These verses show that the Servant is both referring to Jesus and to Israel. We read the first few verses of Isaiah and it is clearly talking about Jesus. Now we read of the servant here and it is clearly not talking about Jesus., for He was definitely not blind and stubborn. Jesus was what Israel was meant to be.

Israel should have been God's faithful servant, listening to Him, obeying Him, and bringing His light to the world, but time and time again they were just as disobedient as the rest of the world.  They had seen God do many things, but they learnt nothing. Just as many saw Jesus do many miracles, yet remained totally faithless.

"Who handed Jacob over to become loot?" Israel's natural reaction would have been to blame Babylon, and ask why God had not helped them. What she needed to do was to realise that she was receiving God's judgement. When things go wrong with us our first reaction is so often to look to someone else to blame. We would get on much better if our first reaction was to ask what can we do better.

Salvation only comes when we come to terms with our own sin.