Isaiah 41:1-20.  Most of you who know me know that I work on and build hoses for a living.  You probably don’t know that I also design and draw plans for a lot of the work I do.  When you draw plans for a building one part of the drawings is called “Elevations”.  They show what the building looks like when you are standing in front of some part of it looking at it.  The drawing has no sense of depth to it though.  It’s like standing very far away with a good lens and taking a picture, with nothing in the way and all of the light good.  Or you might think of one of those satellite pictures of the earth, a circle with different continents showing and oceans.  On an elevation parts of thee drawing can be closer and others farther away and they all look like they are at the same place.  I think for prophets some of their visions are that way.  They see a bunch of events all on top of each other and don’t see any separation by time.  Suppose there was a big storm coming and near by were a bunch of Jewish people living in tents.  God, wanting to protect his people decides to set up a big roof.  While he’s setting it up one of the Jewish people, a prophet, notices.  He asks God, “What ya doing?”  God answers and by giving him a vision of all the people running under the roof away from the rain and says, “Dude, it’s a shelter for my people from the rain.  Tell them it’s here.”  So the prophet seeing the coming storm goes and warns his fellow Jews and they all run under and are saved from the storm.  The whole tent city is washed away but the people are safe and the story is written down for generations to come to read.  Hundreds of years later there are some other people living in the area and they are aware of the story.  A huge storm is coming again so some of them go looking for the shelter and to their amazement find it and are saved.  The prophet may have seen all the same people gathering in his vision but there is no hint that it involved two groups, hundreds of years apart.  In the time between the people who knew the story would have looked back and talked about how God had save the people, not knowing that the story would have a sequel.  That is how some prophecy is it can have multiple fulfillments.  Often the first fulfillment is so the people will believe the second bigger fulfillment is coming.  Today’s reading may be like that.

Remember the time is one of invasion.  The Assyrians are coming for Judah.  The invasion may have already begun with most of Judah conquered.  The last few cities are under attack including Jerusalem.  The people would be wondering, “Where is God?  Where are all the promises that he would care for us?  Maybe he isn’t big enough to win this one?”  The costal cities that Judah made treaties with would have already been conquered.  So God basically says, “Listen up all of you.  That guy who is sweeping through the area, I sent him.  I’ve been around a long time and will be for a long time to come.”  The idea is that god knows what is going on and has the ability to control it.  In verses 5-7 we see that most nations respond by turning to their man made idols.  Noting is said at this point about how well that will or won’t work for them.

Next God reassures the people of Judah that he is “their” God.  They were his servant, whom He chose and brought to this place.  He has not rejected them so they should not shale or loose heart.  He would give them strength and hold them up.  Unlike the feeble idols who had to be held up by a nail in the wall Here God is the strong one hold up his people.  God promises to deal with the people who are after them.  When the language starts talking about redeeming (buy back or pay a ransom) it seems to be going past the invasion by Assyria.  So does the language about a threshing sled (a tool used to grind up harvested wheat so that the leaves and stalks could be separated from the sees by the wind).  In the battle in 701 BC remember that God destroyed 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night while the people of Judah were locked up in Jerusalem.  So here again the language seems to be looking past the battle of that time, yet Isaiah still uses “you” to address the people so in some ways it still applied to his immediate audience.  The result of all of God’s activity would be honor to him.

Verses 17-20 almost certainly have the backyard in view, if you get my meaning.  Isaiah is looking way past the front of the house and the immediate invasion, notice the pronouns change from “you” to “they, their, them”.  Thos same pronouns were used in the first part of the chapter talking about the people of the coastland, but now they are used talking about God’s people (see verse 17).  In this future time God will see and hear the needs of his people and take care of them.  The desert places will become watered and productive and the people will realize that God is taking care of them.

I love the ideas here.  God sees.  God knows.  God cares.  God has enough power to do something, anything he wants, about our problems.   And what does God give when we are thirsty?   A cup of water?  No, rivers and springs and a pool. Awesome.  Of course this happens at the right time.  Theses verses didn’t happen right after the invasion by Sennacherib was stopped.  But the promises are still there and God is at work, so we need to be patient and keep trusting in and honoring Him.  God help me trust.  Help me keep track of the victories already won and remember the promises for the future.  Give me patience.  Give me endurance.  Help me hope and share the hope with others.