Isaiah 46-48
Notes
Transcript
Isaiah 46-48
Isaiah 46-48
Good evening church! Thank you all for coming to our midweek service. We are picking up our study in the Book of Isaiah. We completed chapter 45 at our last midweek gathering…and I’m not going to recap other than to read just a couple verses from the end of that section. Isaiah 45:21-23
Isaiah 45:21–23 (NKJV)
21 ...And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.
22 “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, should sound familiar to you New Covenant Saints. It is found both in Romans and in Philippians, there referring to Jesus.
Pray...
Sadly, in chapter 46 we continue on with more and more idolatry. But what I want you to be aware of every time that we are in the book of Isaiah is the importance of prophecy. If we spend any time in this book and you don’t walk away with a solid understanding of that, then we have not maximized the value of your time. I say that because the fulfillment of prophecy is one of our greatest evangelistic tools that we can use.
We want to share the gospel, we want to give our testimony, but we should also know that something close to 30% of the bible was written as prophecy at the time it was written and unlike Nostradamus and other worldly predictions, it has never been shown to be wrong.
Tonight we will read about the destruction and fall of Babylon, and it was written 100 years before Israel was taken captive. Babylon had not yet risen to power, Assyria was still the superpower at the time.
In the Book of Jeremiah we have the prophecy telling us that the captivity would last for 70 years. We read in the Book of Daniel about Daniel seeking God as the 70 years was up and was there anything that he could do.
God even names the man by name who would be the one to set the people free, Cyrus a Gentile, not a Jew was the one that was used to conquer the Babylonians as the ruler of the Persians.
The Book of Ezra, you can read it later, it’s right in the 1st chapter. We find that Cyrus himself declared that this was all a Word of God, not just some great thing that he did on his own accord. Chapter 46 where we are picking up tonight deals with this prophecy concerning Babylon, but it proceeds the invasion of Babylon and the destruction of the Temple by, I think 106 years, so Babylon itself is destroyed 176 years after this was written.
1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, A burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together; They could not deliver the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.
Kings were named after these false gods. Nebuchadnezzar was named after Nebo - means lofty one. So Nebuchadnezzar means may the lofty one protect our borders. The god Bel - means master or Lord. Belshazzar, who was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, was named after Bel, so his name meant something to the effect of Master protect the King.
Their gods were burdens, they needed to haul around, they were even burdens to their beasts, and they had to carry their gods around, set them up, tare them down, they were useless when they cried out to them, and now the contrast with the One and Only True and living God.
3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:
4 Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
God birthed and carried Israel. God called this one man Abraham, from where? Ur of the Chaldeans, he called Abraham out to be separate.
5 “To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, And weigh silver on the scales; They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it And set it in its place, and it stands; From its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer Nor save him out of his trouble.
Remember one part of their idol was used to crave into their graven image and then another part was thrown into the fire to bake their bread.
People make gods after the fashion of themselves. Now most people today, aren’t going to go online and order a bobble head of themselves and worship it as a god, but can you guys think of anyway that someone might fashion their god after themselves today? “A god of love wouldn’t send anyone to hell, wouldn’t reject anyone, my god would understand that even though His Word says this, or that my actions might stumble someone else, my god would understand.
Their god becomes a projection of their own philosophies and ideas.
Vs. 7 their god cannot save.
8 “Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’
Vs. 11 - Again that prophecy would cause us to believe.
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.
12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, Who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, For Israel My glory.
Vs. 11-12 again talking about Cyrus. God will always deliver His people, even if He has to use an unlikely hero or deliverer. Our God will never leave or forsake His people.
1 “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man.”
4 As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
7 And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.
Vs. 7 U.S.S.R thought they would never fall. 1979 Iranian hostages… Al-Qaeda
8 “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’;
9 But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 “For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11 Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.
12 “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before!
15 Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.
Vs. 12 challenging them
Vs. 15 history itself proves these prophecies are true.
1 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, Who are called by the name of Israel, And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; Who swear by the name of the Lord, And make mention of the God of Israel, But not in truth or in righteousness;
2 For they call themselves after the holy city, And lean on the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is His name:
In principal they professed to follow Yahweh, yet they continued to follow idols, they were not submitted to God, very similar to today when people claim the name of Jesus, they profess to believe in God, and say with their lips that Jesus is Lord, yet they do things their way.
3 “I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you were obstinate, And your neck was an iron sinew, And your brow bronze,
5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’
vs. 4 stiff necked
6 “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’
8 Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.
vs. 6 “I knew that”
vs. 8 that they would turn their back on God.
9 “For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.
12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.
13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together.
vs. 9 You’ve transgressed, you’ve given credit to idols, yet God still loves you. Will not cut you off....knowing that there is still a time yet to come. After the rapture of the church, during the tribulation that God will once again put His Spirit upon Isreal. He is NOT finished with Israel. The church has not replaced Isreal. God still has a plan and a place for them.
Vs. 10 not to destroy, but to purge or purify…dross
Vs.11 we are living representatives
14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me.”
17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off Nor destroyed from before Me.”
Vs. 14 remember Assyria at this point is still the superpower when this was written.
20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, Declare, proclaim this, Utter it to the end of the earth; Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
21 And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
Vs. 20 when they come out of captivity, reminder to Israel that this was God, not their false idols. We aren’t going to end with no peace, we will end with sharing communion, because Jesus has come and is our peace.
Communion
Grace and Peace!