Isaiah 50:4-51:16.  We are in the middle of one of the mini messages to the people of Judah during the invasion by the Assyrians in 701 BC.  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.

This portion of this mini message records the words of the servant.  The servant starts out by saying he has the “tongue of a disciple”.  A disciple is a “learner” someone who is taught.  In this verse I think we see the servant as one who listens and also one who can relate to us.  In the middle of the verse he understands how to help us when we are tired.  We also see that this is a day by day effort by the servant.  God is near and understands and willing to help.

But the listening is not just to help us, the servant also listens to what he is supposed to do, he did not turn back from his task.  In verse 6 we learn tht he was mistreated terribly.  In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John we see Jesus suffering just as Isaiah describes here.  In verse 7 we learn that the servant get his power from God.  As I have pointed out the servant winds up being Jesus.  But you might say, Well isn’t Jesus God?  Yahweh?  The short answer tot hat is yes (See “Three or One?”).  But according to Philippians 2:7 Jesus “emptied” himself of his divine power.  It doesn’t mean he didn’t have it or he stopped being God he just limited himself.  Instead he was empowered in his life like we are (if you have really put your eternity into Jesus’ hands), by the Holy Spirit living in us (again see “Three or One?”).  Because his power and service are from God the servant knows that whatever happens it will not be useless.  That is what he means by ashamed.  The servant continues this idea in verses 8 and 9 and then in verse 9 he challenges anyone to oppose him.

In verses 10-11 the servant challenges people who claim to be following God but really aren’t. They are really in the dark spiritually.  The firebrands and the fire represent manmade light.  These people are finding their own way but the servant warns them, “Keep going your own way and you will die and spend eternity in a place of pain and sorrow.”  Some scholars think that verse 10 is talking to people who are really trusting God and that the servant is encouraging them to be faithful and that verse 11 is warning people who are making their own light and that may be but either way we see that following our own way has disastrous results.

The first eight verses of chapter 51 definitely are talking to people who want to follow God.  Again, remember these people are facing invasion and destruction.  These Israelites are told to look back in their history to the beginning of the promises about their family.  Those promises were made to their ancestor, Abraham, starting in Genesis 12.  Eventually they were passed specifically to Isaac and then to Jacob (or Israel, see “What’s in a Name”).  It seems odd to call Abraham a stone and his wife a quarry but remember that Abraham was close to 100 years old when Isaac was born and Sarah was around 90.  They had not had any children together (though Abraham had had a child with one of Sarah’s maids) in all their years of marriage.  So it would appear that they were like dead lifeless rocks.  But God had promised and so they had a child from which this large group of people, the Israelites descended.  In verse 3 we see the servant assuring the Israelites that one day it would all be restored, like barren Sarah, barren Judah would be made like a the Garden of Eden.  The rest of the verses through verse 8 continue to reassure the people of Judah that God will follow through.  Verse 7 is interesting if you remember the words of Rabshakeh in Isaiah 36.  The Israelites were taunted and challenged by this Assyrian commander not to trust in Yahweh.    Here God is indicating he’s heard it too and the People of Jerusalem need not worry about what he was saying.  The Assyrians would be destroyed and it is God who would endure.

In verses 9-10 the servant calls to God to do what he has promised to do.  It’s like he’s saying, Were gong to Disneyland, Dad?  Well get your shoes on and let’s go.”  The rest of the verses in today’s reading continue to alternate between reminders of God’s past strength and faithfulness toward Israel and statements about Israel’s future.  A  future of joy and goodness in their land.

In Hebrews 2:14-3:1 we see Jesus as the one who is like us.  In Luke 22:42 we see that he is willing to do whatever God the Father has planned to accomplish, whatever needs to be done for us.  It becomes more clear the more we study the Bible that Jesus is the Servant of God speaking in these verses.  As we know from history he suffered greatly.  In Hebrews 2:17 we are told that he “made atonement” for our sins (disobedience and rebellion).  That word, atonement, comes from a root that means to make something be far away.  You might say Jesus took out our trash.  1 John 2:2 tells us that it was his very death which accomplished this.  For me one of the coolest things in today’s reading is the fact that Jesus didn’t use his own power to live his perfect life he relied on the help of the Holy Spirit.  If you are a person who has given your life and eternity to Jesus the Bible teaches that you are the “house” of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:16).  He lives in us just like he did in Jesus and helps us remember what we are supposed to do if we what to please God like Jesus did (John 14:26).  God I appreciate that you became one of us.  I appreciate that you were tempted but you never gave in (Hebrews 4:15).  I like it that I have a helper, I’m very pathetic on my own.  Thank you for your compassion.  Thank you for dying for me.  Thank you for loving me.  Thank you for being faithful.  Help my life please you.

Isaiah 49:14-50:3.  I guess my week puts yesterday’s post (In reality 5 days ago) to the test.  After posting that it’s about a relationship and not just being religious about “cranking out” these posts again my week got very hectic.  This time I had house guests for most of the week (My oldest son and his family.  Read  “three energetic grand-children”).  Also I was pressed to finish a project for a customer.  On Sunday Cookie mentioned a couple of things she wanted to talk about, one of them is still waiting.  And then there was that Deacon’s Meeting that I had forgotten about.  That doesn’t mean that I haven’t had interaction with God this week but this regular time of letting God teach and speak to me has suffered.  It’s sad too, since even after 35 years of being a believer (that’s longer than some of your parents have been alive, maybe) I still have questions for God.  There are still situations that I’m unsure about what to do in.  Yesterday I was sorking on a project in an industrial area and there was a guy who lives as a caretaker on a property across the street from where I was working.  I was there kind of late (8:45 PM) and at one point in the early evening we talked.  At one point he asked me where I got the energy and I told him, “Desperation, I’m not old enough to get Social Security.”  (He is retired and living on social Security).  I think that maybe that is why the answers don’t all come easily as we live for God; we need to stay “desperate” in our relationship to keep us coming back.  That may sound like a “there are no atheists in foxholes” kind of remark but remember that Paul was given a physical infirmity to keep his relationship with God in line (2 Corinthians 12:7).  And as one pastor pointed out to me, I’m no Paul, so how much more do I need “reminders” to keep me close to God (You know, looking back, that remark really didn’t make much sense, I was comparing him to Paul and myself to the Bereans.  Hmmm…).

Back to the reading.  Remember we are looking at some mini messages from God through Isaiah.  Isaiah originally arranged theses message together for the people of Judah and Jerusalem to read.  The messages may have been given at an earlier time for various reasons but they seem to be arranged in the book of Isaiah to deal with two main ideas:  God will deal with pride and God is the one who deserves to be honored.  These two ideas are really related because pride honors self which often contrasts with honoring God.  We take the credit instead of giving it to God (Maybe like me telling that guy that I have energy because I am desperate rather than saying, “Oh! From God.”  But I did give God credit later when I said that it was God who kept me going in the face of negative circumstances in life.)  There was an earlier set of mini messages (Isaiah 40-48) that focused on the fact that God was gong to save the Israelites and fulfill all of his promises to them so they needed to avoid finding their own solutions to their problem, including avoiding alliances with Babylon.  The temptation to make an alliance with Babylon against Assyria seems to be the more immediate situation for this part of the book.  This new section of mini messages (Isaiah 49-55) is more about “how” God is going to fulfill his promises to Israel.  Remember that each of these mini messages ends with a song of praise to God.  That should always be our response when we learn something about God, praise or honor.  To me that is what real worship is, learning (seeing who God is and what he is doing) and giving him a “shout out” for it.

The “how” that we are seeing in these mini messages involves the “servant” of God.  We first met the servant in chapter 42 (well really before as we come to understand who he is.  He is the child in chapter 7 and the light/child/prince of peace in chapter 9 and the descendant of Jesse (David’s father) in chapter 11.  Probably the king in Isaiah 32:1 and definitely the king in Isaiah 33:17 (and note v. 22 where the king is identified as Yahweh)).  So if he is a king how is he a servant?  And as we have seen why is there this mixed message about victory and suffering?  Let’s get back to that.

Remember yesterday’s mini message was about how this servant would be the one who would make all the promises come true, and the effect would reach beyond the Israelites to the whole world.  But the people of Judah were in the midst of an invasion that would take 46 of their fortified cities and many villages.  No wonder in verse 14 they felt abandoned.  In the following verses God assures the people that he has not forgotten them (v. 15) and that he will cause the people of the world to bring their “children to them”(v. 22) and that he has the power to make it all happen (vv. 24-25).  In verse 18-21 we see a promise by God to the people of Judah (and by extension to all the Israelites, See “What’s in a Name”).  If you speak a second language you know that translation from one language to another is as much art as science.  There is actually no verb in the first part of verse 19 so what is going on with the waste places, desolate places, and destroyed land has to be interpreted from the surrounding verses by the translators.  It appears that the people of Jerusalem are being told that God knows that their land is being invaded and destroyed.  The mini message then goes on to assure them that their lives will be restored, their God given destiny will be fulfilled.  The reference to children is probably a metaphor.  Often in the Old Testament we see things happening for the sake of God’s reputation.  Israel was supposed to help the world realize that their God, Yahweh, was the one true God, but they were not very successful at it.  In a way they were to produce “spiritual” children, people who lived for and honored the one true God, Yahweh.  So verses 20-21 are a promise that that destiny will be fulfilled, with God’s help (vv. 22, 24-25).   The fact that Jerusalem will be too crowded for all these people tells us that the fulfillment of this prediction was not when the people came back from captivity in Babylon after the decree of Cyrus in 539 BC.  This prediction seems to be pointing to an ultimate fulfillment some time in the future.

In the book of Job, Job was confident that even if he died that he would see his “redeemer” in a restored resurrected physical body (Job 19:25-26).  In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that those who have trusted in Jesus for their eternity (v. 23) will be given a new and restored body, even those who have already died (vv. 35, 51), or maybe more correctly even those who are still alive at his coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15) since 1 Corinthians 15 is really talking mostly about resurrection of the dead and not so much about the similar transformation of those who are alive when Jesus returns.  So I think it might not be too much of a stretch for Isaiah 49:20-21 to be talking about actual children who have died and are brought back to life and to their parents, but the main idea I think is people from all over the world coming to Jerusalem as “spiritual children” of the Israelites.

Verse 26 ends the section about God taking care and having the power by describing God as a savior and redeemer.  Remember that is the word Job used for God too.  In Isaiah 50:1 God asks two questions of the Israelites.  The questions are rhetorical to point out the relationship between God and the Israelites.  The questions are rhetorical and presume that God has “divorced” them and that he has “sold them”.  This can be seen in the two “answers” in the second half of the verse.  The reason for both situations is that they had “iniquities”, a word that means to be bent, distorted, or perverse (a word that means turned around), and transgressions, a word that means to rebel or revolt, to go against authority.  So we see that the Israelites are living disobedient lives and consequently they had a bad relationship with God, really a broken relationship or no relationship.  The next verse (v. 2) asks two more questions;  “Where is every body?” and “Why isn’t anyone answering?”  The answer is implied in God’s responses to these questions.  He responds by telling them he can deal with the broken relationship, he has the power to do it.  The rest of verse 2 and verse 3 illustrate the power of God.  In the book of Hosea, Hosea is a prophet that is told to marry a prostitute.  When the woman cheats on him he sends her away, but later he is told to take her back. The picture that Hosea’s life paints is one of God and Israel, Israel is the “cheating” wife and God is “Hosea” (who’s name means to save or rescue, see “What’s in a Name”).  So we see that we are unfaithful and deserve divorce but God is faithful and forgiving and able to “redeem” (or pay for our return) us fro our rebellion.  In next few reading we will see just how God “pays” for us.  And in that, we will see the answer to the questions above about the servant being a king and also suffering.

The thing that I get out of this reading is that God has the power and that he cares enough to use it for our benefit.  I especially like verse 16.  He has written us on the palm of his hands.  As a carpenter I am often without paper at work.  Often we write notes on a scrap of wood only to lose it or use it later.  So we can lose important information.  A lot of times, if I have a pen, I will write something on my hand.  It usually horrifies some one to see me do it but my response is that I’m not likely to misplace the information (though occasionally I’ll wash it off before I remember to transfer it to a better place).  Being inscribed on God’s hand shows me that I’ll be remembered and later we see that his hand represents his power so being in/on his hand means that he will use his power for me.  But he can also use his power to punish.  John 1:12  tells us the if we truly have put our eternity in his hands that we have the right to be his children, children who will be with him forever in the New Jerusalem (Isaiah 49:20, Revelation 20-22).  Thank you Jesus for proving the power of resurrection.  Thank you for making that same resurrection available to me, and not just me but for any one who will come (John 1:12, 1 John 2:2< Revelation 22:17).  While I wait for your return and that new forever existence with you help me live a life that pleases you and shows you to the world.  Let me never take the credit for myself but give it to you.  Let me be there when you come, let me answer when you call.  Thank you for writing me on your hand.