Isaiah 51:17-52:12.  Today we finish up the mini message to the people of Judah during the invasion by the Assyrians in 701 BC that we have been reading for the past couple of days.  The people are discourage, where is the promise of protection and an eternal kingdom that God had made to David?  In chapters 40-48 God had repeatedly reassured them that he would not forget the Israelites, he would fulfill his promises.  If chapter 42 he indicated that he had a servant who would be a big part of fulfilling the promises.  But the servant was described in two seemingly conflicting ways.  He would be hated by the nations and he would be exalted or praised by kings.  Here in chapters 49-55 we learn more about the servant and how God will use him to fulfill the promised destiny of Israel.

Yesterday I said that that part of the mini message contained the words of the servant.  As I started to read today’s part I realized it looks like God is talking so I went back and looked at the commentary (a book by an expert to help us understand a part of the Bible to see if I was correct.  It is interesting that at the beginning of Isaiah 51:4-6 that he says it is difficult to tell who is talking.  Later he seems to only mention God talking as he moves through verses 8-16.  He does the same as he discusses today’s part of Isaiah.  The interesting thing is that we eventually come to understand that Jesus is the servant.  I mentioned earlier that the servant is the same person as the child in Isaiah 7:14.  In that verse a name is given to the child, Immanuel.  In Matthew 1:23 that verse is quoted in direct reference to Jesus.  Matthew 1:23 also tells us that the name means “God with us” (See “What’s in a Name”).  In john 8:51-58 Jesus was having a discussion about who he is by what authority he was teaching.  The Jewish religious leaders kept appealing to their heritage and to Abraham.  And asked Jesus who he though he was, was he greater than their great ancestor who had received promises from God.  Finally Jesus told them that Abraham had actually met him and was overjoyed about it, an incredible claim since Abraham died almost 2000 years before Jesus was born.  He also told them that their God was in the process of honoring him (Jesus).  This probably had those leaders at the boiling point.  When they directly challenged him about meeting Abraham he answered, “Before Abraham was born, I AM.”  Although the New Testament was written mostly in Greek and the Old Testament mostly in Hebrew Jesus was using the same verb and conjugation that God used when he told Moses his personal name, Yahweh, in Exodus 3:14.  A direct claim by Jesus to being Yahweh.  The leaders had no doubt about what he was saying because they took up stones right then and there to execute him.  A lot of other evidence exists that identifies Jesus as God, and remember the Old Testament teaches there is only one God, Yahweh.  Jesus is that God with us and the Servant from Isaiah.  But we also see Jesus referring to God and calling him, his Father in Heaven.  And we see evidence that the Spirit of God is also a person and is fully God.  So we are left with the mystery that although God is one that he exists as three distinct people all at the same time (consider Genesis 1:26 where God uses a plural pronoun when referring to himself and the Baptism of Jesus where we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all at the same time in Matthew 3:16-17).  So the lines are blurred sometimes when God is talking about just who it is.  It could be the father or the Son (though we do not usually see the Holy Spirit communicating in this sort of audible way but it could be him too).

So the lines are fuzzy about who is talking in today’s reading.  It is definitely God but it could also be the servant.  Certainly the Son would have been at least present and supportive even if it was the Father’s voice speaking to the Israelites.  We see that the people of Judah and Jerusalem are told to get up.  The situation is compared to being drunk.  Often times drunk people are overwhelmed, unable to stand up or walk, confused and disoriented, and fairly helpless.  In this case the people of Jerusalem have been pot in this situation by God who has brought the Assyrians army to the gate of their city and destroyed much of their territory.  In fact verse 19 tells us there are two parts to their situation, the destruction of property and suffering and death of the people.  Verse 20 tells us that they are like some one fallen down drunk in the street or like a trapped animal because God is dealing with their actions. Two words are use to describe how God is dealing with them, wrath and rebuke.  The first word definitely has passion involved in it, it is sometimes translated as fury, rage, heat, and hot displeasure.  The second word has the idea of correction in it.  In our day and age parents often take a lot of heat for trying to correct their kids, police are under a microscope for every action, and school officials are severely limited in how they can punish students.  Some people believe almost no actions should be “corrected” and those actions that do need correcting should never be dealt with harshly, with a loud voice, or anything unpleasant.  I can think of nothing harsher than an Assyrian invasion.  The Assyrians were know for brutality (and it wasn’t just being slapped with a fish for you Veggie Tales fans).  They would kill people in the towns they conquered and make piles of heads by the gate to put fear in the rest of the people.  They would rip out peoples tongues and rip off their lips.  Very sever stuff.  Now the fact that God used the Assyrians to discipline the people of Judah does not mean that He approved of every action on their part and in fact in an earlier section of Isaiah we see that Assyria themselves will be disciplined for going to far in their actions.  But that does not change the fact that God was angry and that he allowed the people of Judah to suffer the consequences of the invasion before he stepped in.  It took the reality of their actions to show them that they needed to rust in God for protection not in alliances with other nations (like Egypt and Babylon) and not in their own fortifications.

In verses 21-23 we see that God will deliver the people from the suffering and will actually turn it back on the people who were attacking them.  We also see that the responsibility for the actions of the Assyrian army was on that same army.  It was they who made the people of Judah lie down so they could be marched on (perhaps literally, there are ancient drawings of just this sort of think from Egypt and Messopotamia (the area at the center of Chapter 52 begins with the people of Jerusalem (Zion is a synonym for Jerusalem) again being told to get up but his time thay do not stagger around drunk and without help.  The oppressors are gone (uncircumcised and unclean, v. 1).  IN verse three we see an unusual comment, “they were sold for nothing and will be bought back without money.”  Because of the verses that we red in chapter 51 I think the idea here is that they were not really sold but put into the hands of the Assyrians for another purpose, to feel the consequences of their disregard for God.  Life without God is not good.  But now they are free from the chains they have been brought back if not bought back.  But there is a price to bring them back it is just not money.  Verse 4 compares the current Assyrian invasion with the Israelites time in Egypt.  The comparison is not about the problems but about the solution, about God saving them from both.  Although the people who are oppressing the Israelites mock God (v. 5) God is the powerful one who will save them.  At some time in the future God will say, “Here I am.”  Then Bam! At least for the enemies.

Verses 7-10 are a song.  Remember that each of the mini messages has ended with a song honoring God.  Along with all of the other stuff in each message the real message is that we need to give God credit.  The message are not just information but information which will, hopefully, cause us to trust God and honor him with our words and our lives.  Although this message might have applied to the situation when God destroyed the Assyrian army that was camped around Jerusalem it actually has if ultimate fulfillment in the future when Jesus returns to earth and sets up a literal kingdom on earth with his capital in Jerusalem  Verse 7 is quoted by Paul in Romans 10:15.  He had just told his readers that if they believed in who Jesus is and what he had done that they could be saved, become a permanent part of God’s forever kingdom (Romans 10:9).  In other verses in Romans we learn that our sins (disobedience and rebellion against God) were paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross.  So we learn that not just the Israelites but all mankind (Romans 10:9-11) has the offer of redemption (bought back without money Isaiah 52:3).  So God will redeem people and his promises of a kingdoms with it’s center in Jerusalem will be fulfilled.  That is certainly something to sing about.  The mini message concludes with two verses after the song about the great kingdom of God which is coming.  The verses are set in that future time and are set in Jerusalem.  The first verses tells those who are carrying the “vessels of Yahweh” to remain pure and holy.  The “vessels of Yahweh” were items used in the temple to make sacrifices and offerings to God.  In Romans 12:1 people who had put their lives and eternities in Jesus hands were told to give their lives as a living sacrifice to God.  We are now the vessels that hold the offering of our existence.  We are the ones carrying the offering to God.  And we need to live lives that are pleasing to Him.  And in that future existence we will not need to hurry and hide.  God will lead us it the way we should go and “will have our back.”

Thank you God for being the Servant who saves.  Thank you for paying the price that no man on earth could ever pay.  The price for my restoration to you was your own blood.  It’s gruesome and brutal but you paid that price so I could be with you forever.  Help me see that way to live a life that pleases and honors you.  Help me follow your lead, let me have confidence that you are there protecting me.  Help me not to trust in my own ideas and strength, nor that of others.  Give me wisdom and give me courage.