Isaiah 43:16-44:5. This is the rest of another mini message which we started yesterday. Like the mini message from two days ago it has the message to “fear not”. But there is a lot you could fear in this message. Yesterday we saw that Babylon was going to be over run by the Assyrians. Yesterday’s part of the message encouraged the Israelite (and any one who would follow God) by telling them that he was “their” God. Today’s part of the message continues that though by reminding them of past victories, times when God cared for them. Verses 16-17 probably refer to the time when God brought the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and destroyed Pharaoh’s army (Exodus 14:21-31). But then they are told not to just look at the past but to think of the future. God is not a one hit wonder, “but wait there’s more”, verses 19-21 tell us that theses people who failed to be God’s witnesses in the past would one day fulfill their destiny and bring honor to God.
This is a “good news bad news” story though. God has done good things in the past. God is going to do good things in the future, but the bad news is that the Israelites have not honored God with their lives. They have continued to be rebellious and disobedient toward God. Not a very good way to treat your best friend. Verses 25-28 tell us that being a bad friend to God has consequences. There is trouble and destruction on the horizon.
The good news is God still loves us and wants to help, and help he will. We just can’t do it on our own we need a guide. So God has a plan, He will fill his people with his spirit, the ultimate guide. Jesus told his followers that he would send the Holy Spirit (see “Three or One?”) to help us live for him (John 14:16-17, 25-26).
Although this prophecy in Isaiah deals specifically with the Israelites and how they will fulfill God’s plan for them we see in the verses in John that the promise of the Holy Spirit also came to the followers of Jesus. The original followers were mostly Jewish but in the book of Acts (Acts 15:6-11) we see that many, many non-Jews (Gentiles) followed Jesus and also were filled with the Holy Spirit. Which of course brings God’s plan for the Israelites full circle because they were supposed to help the nations of the world see and come to God. In the end it all winds up bringing honor to God (one of the two main themes of Isaiah, remember). The Israelites were to “fear not” (Isaiah 44:2) because God’s plans will eventually be fulfilled. God is not a “one hit wonder” and for us it’s not “one strike and you’re out” or even three. If we will turn back to God there is no limit to his forgiveness. Once Jesus was asked how often we needed to forgive someone, “Seven times?” Jesus’ answer was seventy times seven. If you want to be totally literal that’s more than once every two months for a persons entire life. The idea is, a lot. God is more forgiving that we cold ever be. That doesn’t mean that there are not consequences for our disobedience and that doesn’t mean every one gets to be in heaven. It just means that “as many as receive Jesus” get to be a part of God’s family. It takes humility though, if we proudly try to get to God on our own we will fall short (Romans 3:23). That’s the other main message in Isaiah. We keep seeing these two ideas. We need to stop being proud and we need to give God all the honor, honor him for the loving forgiving redeeming God he is. We will see just what it cost him to pay for our sins in future reading in Isaiah. But for now we need to give him credit for what he has done. Lord thank you for making a plan. Thank you for being faithful even when we are not. Thank you for paying what ever price it cost to deal with our sins. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, the ultimate helper in our relationship. Help me hear and listen. Help me see and give you the honor.