My God is Awesome

Chapters 1-39 of Isaiah have been all about what one commentary calls the retribution of God. Isaiah’s words are all about judgment. Sometimes against Judah, and sometimes about the nations around Judah.

These messages cover decades of preaching… decades of warnings. decades of pleading with people, begging Kings and subjects alike to Love the Lord and serve Him.

Chapter 40 is a major shift in the book. From here to the end is what one commentary calls Restoration By God.

Chapter 39 predicts that Babylon is going to take Judah into Captivity 100 years later, and 40-48 comfort Judah that deliverance will come (and even names the future foreign King, Cyrus who will bring it about) after 70 years of captivity.

Chapters 49-57 focus on the Savior who is to come. His rejection and and restoration are major focuses.

Chapters 58-66 focus on the completion of God’s plan, including the coming of Messiah.

During the next few weeks we will study 40-48 focusing on God’s promised deliverance from Babylon. As we do, we need to think in light of what God could want to teach us, all these 1000’s of years after Isaiah wrote.

God is awesome. 40

God is protector 41

God is gracious. 42-43

God is God alone 44-45

God is deliverer 46-47

God is Master 48

Be encouraged that God will deliver

Isaiah 40:1–11 HCSB

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.” Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with strength, and His power establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His gifts accompany Him. He protects His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.

The Words used here “comfort, and speak tenderly” all have the idea of encouraging the people.

Isaiah is speaking to a future generation that would have spent 70 years under the oppression of the Babylonians.

But to be clear, they were in the predicament because they were being judged.

It needs to be said again and again, mankind is in the predicament it is in because of our sin.

Many of us find ourselves in predicaments of our own making, but the promises of Scripture are that God will deliver us. Many times in this life, but certainly in the next.

But here is the difference between the Old Testament and the New. In Isaiah, Judah bears the punishment for their sins, in the New Testament, (which Isaiah alludes to many times) Jesus bears the penalty for our sins.

In Verses 3-4 God is paving the way, so that nothing can stop Him from delivering His people.

Verse 5 The Glory of the Lord (His noticeable and heavy presence) shows up and all humanity sees it. This surely points to the end of time when Jesus will return in great glory.

6-8 is full of promise. Jewish flesh will fail.. Babylonian flesh will fell. The flesh of those who oppose God’s people in our day will fail, but so will our flesh. But what God has said stand.

His Word will Stand, His Word will stand, though stars should fall and mountains turn to sand though no man believes Him Still God will be true His promise is sure His love will endure and forever His Word will stand.

9-11 Recipients of good news need to share the good news.

God will establish Himself in strength 10

God will protect and provide for His own 11

Be confident since God can deliver

Isaiah 40:12–26 HCSB

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in the scales? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who gave Him His counsel? Who did He consult with? Who gave Him understanding and taught Him the paths of justice? Who taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Lebanon is not enough for fuel, or its animals enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are considered by Him as nothingness and emptiness. Who will you compare God with? What likeness will you compare Him to? To an idol?—something that a smelter casts, and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver welds for it? To one who shapes a pedestal, choosing wood that does not rot? He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth? God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth irrational. They are barely planted, barely sown, their stem hardly takes root in the ground when He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble. “Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. Look up and see: who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.

The root issue here is “CAN HE DO IT”? There is promise in verses 1-11, but Judah could look at the fact that they were in captivity and ask IS GOD ABLE?

Sometimes we look at the current state of our problems and ask the same thing. We can feel abandoned. We can decide God is not real because He hasn’t answered when we want, and in the way we want. We can come to the conclusion that either God doesn’t care or that God CAN’T help.

One writer points out “there had been no previous history of any people getting to go back home from captivity. But God was saying that would happen. . Pretty big claim.

Isaiah outlines HOW BIG GOD IS!

And he does it with a series of rhetorical questions all to remind of how AWESOME GOD IS!

So we find strength in His strength… to keep believing

Someone has said instead of allowing the Devil to remind us of how big our problems are, we should remind him of how big our God is.

That is what Isaiah is doing here.

Wait in expectant hope until God delivers

Isaiah 40:27–31 HCSB

Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.

This is a summary of the chapter.

In verses 27-28 Isaiah reminds that God is ALWAYS. And He created the world. And He never gets tired. And He always knows and always knows what to do.

In verses 29-31 Isaiah reminds that God works in the lives of His people. He gives strength to the tired. Are you tired? Tired of trying? God will strengthen you. Even young people run out of strength, but God gives the second wind! He renews strength.

When we wait for the Lord.. When we keep trusting… Keep waiting… Keep believing.

We WILL soar. We WILL run and not grow weary. We WILL walk and not faint.

May not be today.. May not be tomorrow. But keep trusting. Keep believing. It will happen.