Isaiah 43:7-15.  This is the beginning of another mini message.  This message starts out with God basically challenging the world to a duel of truth.  The question is who really knows what is going on in human history.  Can the blind Israelites or the unbelieving nations of the world explain what is really going on?  Can their idols even explain past events?  No.

The Israelites were supposed to help everyone see that God is God.  He had explained life and history to them so they could tell everyone.  Yahwea is the personal name of God which he told to Moses (Exodus 3:14.  “I AM” in Hebrew is four letters YHWH.  In ancient Hebrew vowels are left out so we have Yahweh).  In today’s reading in Isaiah we have Yahweh (LORD in all capitals in many English translations) telling the people of Judah that they were supposed to be his witnesses.  But now he is challenging them and the world to think about who he is.  He has been revealing to them what is going on, often times before it happened, so that they could prove to the world that they knew the real God.  Verse 13 reminds them that he has been God forever and no one can change what he does.

In verses 14-15 God gives a prediction to prove once again that he is God.  One of the main political players at the time was Babylon.  In these verses God predicts a violent overthrow of the Babylonian kingdom.  Some thing this was the defeat of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BC. That was a relatively peaceful takeover and does not seem to fit the description here.  Another option was the defeat of Babylon by Sennacherib in 689 BC which was quite violent.  Also that would better fit the time of the writing of the book.  If most of Isaiah was written around 701 BC then the overthrow of Babylon about 10 years later would be a big wake up call to the people of Israel, and the nations.

What I like about today’s reading is the way God describes himself in verses 14 and 15.  He uses the word “your” three times.  “Your redeemer”, “your holy one”, and “your king”.  It reminds me of that verses in Romans 8:31, if God is for us who can be against us.  That paragraph goes on to tell us that Jesus died for our sins and how noting can separate us from love of God.  There is a lot of destruction going on in the world, always has been.  We need to see that it is a mess we have made.  God is working through the mess, reaching out to people form all nations, calling them to return to him.  He gives a lot of proof, and keeps on giving it.  Sometimes we get in the way, instead of telling people so they can see we ignore God and what he is doing.  We can be lazy and selfish, too lazy to learn what he has said and tell others or selfish with our time wanting to do what we want to do.  We don’t want to take the time to be witnesses for God.  But God works hard at moving us toward himself and will use tough times to do it.  It’s like the old line from many stories, “we can do this the easy way or the hard way”.  It is much easier to do it God’s way.  Jesus said we needed to take up his burden which would be easy and light (Matthew 11:28-30).  Sure it’s still a burden but in the end we will have rest.  For those who do not see and hear eternity will be torment forever.  We need to follow Jesus now and show others the way.  Lord help me be diligent in carrying the load you want me to carry.  Help me follow you diligently.  Thank you for making the burden light.  Give me patience, perseverance, and faith.  Let me be your witness.  Thank you Jesus for taking the real load and paying for my sins.  Thank you for the promise of rest.

Isaiah 42:14-43:7.  Yesterday we read the first of several mini messages each of which concludes with a song honoring God.  This next mini message is actually three mini messages, all centered around the idea of “fear not”.  After the 3 messages we will again have a song to honor God.  Several years ago I was invited to go to a two week training event designed to help people work in other cultures.  Part of the training tried to help us understand big differences between different peoples.  For example some, cultures are time oriented, everything runs on a schedule.  Other cultures are event oriented,  life revolves around finishing events.  I’m more like the second idea.  If you’ve ever been in my Sunday school class you know I like to finish the lesson, the clock really doesn’t matter as much to me.  Another difference in cultures is how information is shared and how they decide what is true.  Some cultures like to start with certain things they believe are true and use them to prove other facts.  A silly example of this way of thinking might go like this:  All Japanese people have black hair, Mike is Japanese, therefore Mike has black hair.  Other cultures like to prove a point by looking at giving several slightly different facts that all state the same point thereby proving the point.  I heard a sermon one time like this.  I got out my notebook and started an outline, 1A., and got ready to write whatever the preacher was going to prove that day.  He said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  I wrote that down, it was my first fact.  Then I wrote the next number for the outline.  But the preacher continued, “God is so great.”  A conclusion but we only had one fact.  Hmmmm.  Then he said, “And God said let there be light, and there was light!“  A second fact, but then he said, “God is so great!”  Since I had been trained I realized where this was going and stopped outlining and just wrote the different points or facts as he went on describing the many great things God had done in creation.  I think these mini messages work the same way.  There will be many “facts’ about God we can learn from them but the real point is the songs at the end of each “fact”.  The real message is God is the one who should be honored and worshipped.

So here we have a group of facts within a group of facts.  Today’s reading is the first “fear not” fact.  Remember Isaiah is writing to Judah during a time of attack by the nation of Assyria.  Most of the kingdom has been laid waste.  I’m sure the people were saying, Where’s God?”  In verse 14 we see God telling us that he had been silent for a long time, he had allowed this invasion to take place.  The next verse probably is talking about rivers and mountains that belong to the enemy invader, God is going to deal with those dudes.  Next verse (didn’t take God long to deal with them) we see God’s attention on some blind people.  We se him leading them, giving them sight, and smoothing out their path.  Cool.  And it’s a sure thing (v. 16) Way cool.  Who are these blind people?  In verse 17 we see some people who are not lead to away and given sight.  These people are people who keep turning to false gods and idols.  I think they are all part of one group, some who follow god and others who stay with the idols.  Verse 19 identifies the blind and deaf as the servant of God.  This is not the same servant we met in the mini message yesterday.  In Isaiah 6:9-10 we see that the people of Judah are the blind and deaf people (see also Isaiah 29:18; 32:3; 42:7)  Also we see in Isaiah 41:8-9 that the Israelites are called God’s servant.  This servant has been bad though.  Israel had been following false idols.  Hezekiah had the places of idol worship removed.  It appears that many were now focused back on God but some were not.  Remember also in chapters 36-37 that Rabshakeh and Sennacherib told the Israelites not to trust in their “god” since Hezekiah had destroyed their places of worship.  The Assyrians clearly did not understand that those were false gods and idols and that Israel had only one God, Yahweh.

So in verses 18-22 we learn that the people of Judah are the blind and deaf ones, the servant who did not honor their master.  According to verse 19 they were so blind they thought hey had a good relationship with God.  What is even more incredible is that they were even given written instructions by God to help in their relationship with him, they weren’t left to guess.  He had given them the Law (of Moses).  Other people did not get a letter from their gods but Yahweh had written to his people.  But they were not looking and listening and obeying so they had fallen under a curse and been invaded (See Deuteronomy 11:26-29).  No one was there to take them back, God was being silent (v. 14).   Verses 23-25 tells us that they trouble they were in was from God.

Chapter 43  starts out, “But now”.  It’s God their creator talking and what does he say, “Fear not!”  Silent no more and why shouldn’t they fear?  He has paid the price for them.   Again in verse 5 they are told not to fear for he will bring them back, all of his “sons and daughters”.  Everyone who is called by his name will be saved and brought home.  The people who he created for “for His glory”.

They were to “fear not” because God was there to save them and he would bring back all of the captives who were his (remember that Sennacherib had taken about 200,000 prisoners).  But the promises seem to go beyond just the situation in 701 BC.  Verse 24 talked about Jacob and Israel (two names for the same guy, see “What’s in a Name”) this could refer to Judah but all twelve tribes may be in mind here.  God’s plan was for the whole nation to be an example to the world.  The people of Judah were to “fear not” because God would deal with their current situation but all of God’s people through all ages can feel the same security.  John 1:12 tells us that if we have allowed Jesus into our lives, really believe in who he is and what he alone can do for us, then we have the right to be God’s children.  If you have put your eternity into Jesus’ hands then you are a child of God and one day he will gather all of us into his secure forever kingdom.  Lord thank you for being an in-touch God.  Thank you for being a God who stays in-tough even when we ignore you.  Help me see and hear and obey.  Help me not turn back to dumb idols.  Thank you for being aware of what I am going through.  Help me learn for the problems you let into my life.  In the end help me give you the honor.