A Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 12 Aug 2007
13. Jehovah went abroad like a hero,
like a man of war He stirred up His zeal;
He shrieks, He even lets out a whoop,
He makes Himself heroic over His foes.
14. “I have held my peace from eternity;
I will keep still; I will restrain myself;
like a birthing woman I will cry out,
I will pant and inhale together.
15. I will lay waste mountains and hills and I will dry up all their vegetation,
then I will arrange the rivers into islands and I will dry up the pools.
16. And I will cause the blind to walk in a way they do not know –
in paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will arrange the darkness before their faces into the light, and the crooked into straight.
These are the things I have done, and I do not forsake them.”
17. “The ones who trust in the idols will be turned backwards and utterly put to shame -
those who say to a cast image, ‘You are our god!’
18. Hear, you deaf, and pay attention, you blind, in order to see.
19. Who is blind if not my servant, or deaf like my messenger I send?”
Who is blind like the “perfected one,” or blind like the servant of Jehovah?
20. to see much but you will not keep,
to have open ears, but they do not heed.
21. Jehovah was inclined because of His righteousness;
He will make great and make glorious His law:
22. And this is a people plundered and looted;
all of them are trapped in holes, and hidden in prison houses.
They have become plunder, and there is no deliverer,
loot and there is no one saying, “Put [that] back!”
23.Who among you will give ear to this – will attend and listen for what follows?
24. Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to plunderers?
Was it not Jehovah, against whom we sinned,
and were not willing to walk in His ways
and did not give heed to His law?
25. Then He poured upon him heat of His anger and the force of battle,
and it set him ablaze all around, but he did not understand,
then it burned him up, but he did not lay it to heart.
Two-pronged plan – WW2 on Japan and Germany simultaneously?
Riddle with a double-meaning - a box w/o hinges, key or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
I) The double meaning of God’s righteousness
A) Verse 13 begins with a description of our God going out to war. He’s getting pumped up and hollering and carrying on like the players do at a football game after the huddle when they’re trying to look intimidating to the other team. They come breaking through their team banner with a roar, and the contest is on!
B) A good football team has been long in preparation for that moment, working out in the weight room, doing drills, memorizing plays, practicing on the field for months for that hour or so of heroism on the gridiron.
C) God has been preparing a lot longer. From the beginning of time He had a plan to send His son Jesus to save us from our sin.
D) The God who
knows no time held His peace for thousands of years while His people
rose and fell through the times of the patriarchs, judges, prophets and kings
of Israel. He was waiting for the fullness of time (Gal 4:4) to break
into history like a hero and save us.
Isaiah 57:11b “Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,
and you do not fear me?”
E) God broke into time and spoke in the first coming of Jesus, providing us with the fulfillment of the forgiveness of sin, and will do it again in the second coming at the end of time when He abolishes sin and its effects altogether.
F) This is a mighty effort on His part,
1. 14 first-person verbs draw attention in this section to God’s great movement in history.
2. Becoming a man and dying on a cross and working all things for good is mind-boggling,
3. He compares it to the effort of a woman giving birth!
4. This demonstrates how great is His love for us - Calvin
G) But wait, what is happening in v.15 as He breaks in and starts working?
1. He is DESTROYING mountains and hills and DRYING UP the plants and rivers and lakes!
2. Then in v.16 He is HELPING the blind, gently leading, providing light.
3. And then in v.17 He’s back to throwing people backwards and putting people to shame!
4. What is going on? It sounds like God is acting randomly, destroying some things and building up others. Is He schizophrenic?
H) No, God is always implementing one single plan, and that is to get glory for Himself from every people He created. But that one plan has 2 methods of implementation. It’s a two-pronged plan.
1. He makes for Himself a people, nurtures and protects them, doing mighty deeds for them in order that they may praise Him.
2. He also punishes all who dishonor Him and rebel against Him. This brings glory to the one who deserves glory and isn’t getting it. Justice brings glory to God.
I) These two kinds of things He does, and He does not abandon these two methods (end of v. 16)
J) The brother of Jesus wrote, that our God is “the one who is able to save AND to destroy.” (James 4:12) He does both.
K) This is a consistent theme in the book of Isaiah:
1. On the one hand, God dries up things and sends people reeling backwards in shame:
(a) 40:23-24 “He brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.”
(b) 28:17 “I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
(c) 30:3 “The protection of Pharaoh will become your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.
(d) 28:13 “And the word of Jehovah will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”
2. But God promises at the same time to lead His people and give them joy and light:
(a) 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”
(b) 48:17 “I am the Lord you God who teaches you to profit and who leads you by the way you should go.”
(c) 29:18-20 “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in Jehovah, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off…” (Do you hear both things going on?)
(d) 44:24-27 Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am Jehovah, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by Myself, 25 who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, 26 who confirms the word of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins'; 27 who says to the deep, 'Be dry; I will dry up your rivers'
(e) 54:4-5 "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. 5 For your Maker is your husband, Jehovah of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer...”
(f) 61:7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.
L) This is the key to explaining on the one hand the destruction that God wreaks on the world when He comes as well as the tender acts of kindness, both of which are described in this chapter.
1. God will glorify Himself by bringing sinners to justice and punishing them,
2. but He will also glorify Himself by redeeming a people for Himself who will worship and obey Him.
Now, there is another key to understanding this chapter, and that is the two-pronged meaning of God’s servant:
II) The double meaning of the servant
A) The first meaning of the servant is Jesus (as we saw last week) – vs. 1-13
1. Jesus is the “servant” who came to do his Father’s will (as John’s gospel points out)
2.
He is the “chosen one” in whom God
“delights”
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him.”
3. He’s the One on whom the Holy Spirit of God was placed in power and wisdom,
4. the One who would “establish righteousness” and “cause justice to go out to the nations.”
5. v.2 Jesus was the One who was not ostentatious or demanding to be heard.
6. v.3 He is the One who was gentle in His ministry “not break a bruised reed or quench a dim wick”
7. v. 4. and Jesus is the relentless, unstoppable servant who would not “grow dim or be discouraged”
B) The second meaning of the servant is God’s people – vs. 16-25
1. In Isaiah 20:3 the phrase “my servant Isaiah” clearly indicates that this phrase referred to the writer of this book.
2. In 22:20, Eliakim (who faithfully led the Jewish delegation in the parley with Rabshakeh the Assyrian army captain) – this Eliakim God calls “my servant.”
3. In speaking to King Hezekiah, God referred to David as “my servant” at the end of ch. 37
4. And in 41:18, Israel is called God’s servant.
5. Delitzsch, the classic German commentator on the Old Testament describes the composition of the Servant of God as a pyramid,
(a) the base of which is the Jewish nation,
(b) the center of which is the church,
(c) and the pinnacle of which is Jesus Himself.
(d) In I Cor. and Col., Paul puts it that believers are all of one body with Christ as the head.
(e) Peter compared it to a building in which believers are living stones & Jesus the cornerstone.
(f) We exist in order to serve God and carry out His purpose for history, just like Jesus did – although our role isn’t as central as the one Jesus fulfilled.
C) This 2nd meaning is what comes out in the last half of this chapter that we’re looking at today.
1. There is a lot of variety in the subjects used in this part of the chapter – I, You, He, They, Jacob, Israel, The Lord, the blind and deaf, a people, my servant, my messenger, etc.
2. But keep in mind that there are only two parties referred to in this section: God and His people. All those words are referring to either one or the other.
III) The Problem: The Servant is Not acting like a Servant
A) In v. 18, God speaks to the people in Jerusalem and calls them deaf and blind.
1. We see how they got blind in Isaiah 6:9-10 "Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes."
2. & Isa. 29:10 “Jehovah has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes...”
3. Jeremiah 5:21 “O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not…”
4. Ezekiel 12:2 “they have eyes to see, but see not, ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house.”
5. The question
in v. 19 “who is blind if not my servant” is answered, “Nobody is that
blind!” If God had done for any other nation all that He had done for
Israel, surely that other nation would have understood and kept in step with
God’s plan better than Israel did. There is no excuse for the rebellion
that the Jews are demonstrating against God.
God’s servant is deaf and blind, and that doesn’t make for a very good
servant!
B) In v. 19, they are again called:
1. “My servant”
2. then “My messenger I send”
3. and My “meshullam” – to pronounce the Hebrew word much debated as to its meaning:
(a) Septuagint takes the root of the Hebrew word as being the first three Hebrew letters rather than the last three letters and renders it “their rulers.” (shalom)
(b) Delitzsch and my French Bible – confidante
(c) Ibn Ezra and Rashi – paid, compensated
(d) NAS, Young – one who is at peace, or who has received a covenant of peace (cf. Isa 66:6)
(e) Kimchi, KJV – Perfect/wholehearted
(f) It’s possible that this was a word the Jews used to show their ethnic pride – “the perfected ones” – the one people God had chosen and instructed with the perfect law.
(i) Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
(ii) In that case, God would be using the word in a sarcastic way to say, “You who are supposedly perfected, why can’t you even see and hear?”
(g) Whatever the case,
this should be taken in parallel with the other two words, “servant” and
“messenger” as designating someone implementing his master’s will.
I would suggest that it speaks of acting out and living out the ideals of
the master (my perfected one) as distinguished from obeying the master (my
servant) and transmitting His words to others (my messenger).
C) God calls this servant to quit being deaf and blind and start acting like a servant again.
1. v. 18 God commands them to “Hear & pay attention” but they haven’t been paying attention:
(a) 5:12 “They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not pay attention to the deeds of Jehovah, or see the work of His hands.”
(b) 22:11 “You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not pay attention to Him who did it, or regard Him who planned it long ago.”
2. In v.19 the names imply a function that the Jews were not fulfilling.
(a) “my servant” - be a servant - attitude
(b) “my messenger” - a messenger - message
(c) “my perfected one” - demonstrate what it is like to be perfected /sanctified – actions
(d) But the Jews were not fulfilling those functions because they were blind and deaf:
3. v.20 “you see much but you do not keep/observe”
(a) Implies God wanted them to actively keep/watch over/protect what they had seen & heard.
(b) A servant takes care of what his master has entrusted to him
(c) Our body is the temple of the lord, our children are the Lord’s possession, the earth is the Lords. We are not free to use and abuse anything, all that we have is a trust from the Lord and must be kept for His glory.
(d) Our life purpose of multiplying His kingdom and our message of the Gospel is also from God, and it must be kept safe from distortion or neglect.
(e) But the people of Judah were not “hearing” God and “keeping” His ways.
4. v.23 “Who will give ear…”
(a) “attend”
– Hebrew word connotes leaning closer to hear
ILLUSTRATION: I can tell who is listening at
this point in the sermon – it’s the people leaning slightly forward with their
eyes wide open and their faces responding to the message!
(b) “and listen” – This Hebrew word implies listening with the intent to obey.
(c) God has been saying this for a long time (Isaiah 28:23 “Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.”)
(d) But the question “Who” implies that no one was listening very eagerly to God.
IV)The Solution: Judgment against God’s own people and a New Servant
A) It may have been inconceivable to the Jews that they would be punished by God. They thought they were “in like Flynn.” (whatever that means) God had chosen and blessed their race forever and they could do whatever they wanted.
B) That’s where v. 21 comes in: In order to
· demonstrate His righteousness
· show how good His word is
· and how glorious He is,
1. God had to punish these people whom He had called to be servants but who weren’t acting like His servants and had displeased Him (1:11)
2. God had to send His son Jesus to be the perfect servant and lead a new people into being true servants of God. (v.1-5)
C) v.22-25 is the outflow of point #1 above.
1. Most English translations start the sentence with the word “But.” But Hebrew doesn’t have different words for “and” and “But.” It is up to the translator to choose from the context whether to translate the conjunction “and” or “but” or something else. I translate it with “And” because:
(a) punishing people is one of the two ways in which God glorifies Himself, and
(b) v.22 paints a picture of a people that has been punished
(c)
and v.24-25 make it clear that
this punishment was fair:
“Jehovah was inclined toward, because of His righteousness, making His law a
big thing and making it glorious, and so this becomes the condition of the
people that violated His law and deserved to have justice served upon them:
they’re plundered and looted and trapped.”
2. v.22 is a Description of the Babylonian exile
(a) “Plundered” –Chaldeans carried off every valuable item when they conquered Jerusalem
(b) “Trapped” – in exile in Babylon, not free to return home
3. v.25 is a picture of senseless man being burned up
(a) God is pouring out on him his fury
(b) People are attacking him in battle
(c) Fire is blazing all around him
(d) But instead of getting right with God and jumping from the fire, he’s standing there looking around saying, “What’s going on, I don’t understand…” and so he is burned up.
(e) ILLUSTRATION: This past Wednesday in Ottawa, Canada, a man helped save his neighbour when her house caught fire by convincing the woman to jump from her second-storey window into a children's hockey net. Neighbours heard the woman screaming for help just after 12:30 p.m... As smoke billowed from her rowhouse unit, the soot-covered woman stood in the second-floor window yelling "Help me!" Mike Seguin, who lives three doors down in the same row of houses, heard a scream and came running. Mr. Seguin's first reaction was to enter the burning unit to try to rescue Krystal Rodgers. But as he got to the stairs, he realized that the smoke was too dense and black for him to make his way. So he went back outside and tried to find another way to help. He grabbed the first thing he could find: a plastic hockey net and placed it face-down. Then he, and others, told the woman she must jump. After a few tense moments, she did. And although she fractured her leg, she was saved from the deadly smoke. "We just tried to do what we could," Mr. Seguin said, adding that he's not sure the hockey net made much of a difference in cushioning her fall. But getting her to agree to jump was the vital point, he said. "I was worried about her panicking and turning the wrong way and heading back in (toward the fire)…" http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e1b95779-fb11-456d-899a-0babfb3ec848&k=56350
(f) The Jews of Isaiah’s time were not taking God’s word to heart. They were not obeying God and becoming the servants He created them to be, so He would bring the fire of judgment upon them. Yet even at this late hour in history, God sends Isaiah to stand at the window of the burning house as it were and try to convince them to jump.
4. v.24 makes the cause of this coming punishment explicit
(a) God is doing this – not Satan, not the Chaldeans. “Who gave Jacob up to the looter… was it not Jehovah? …He poured out upon him the heat of His anger.”
(b) He’s doing this because:
(i) “we have sinned…
(ii) we were not willing to walk in His ways,
(iii) and we would not give heed to his law”
(c) This is the true explanation of what was going on – God punishes rebellion.
(d) Not just about exile,
but the condition of sin in the world today
Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and
thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column
of smoke.
This is the nature of sin – it destroys you.
(e) Since God did it, then there is no deliverer… apart from Him
(i) 1:25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
(ii) 1:31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.
(iii) 10:17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and His Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
(iv) 43:13 Also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?"
(v) 44:20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
(vi) 47:14a Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
D) The plight of the sin that plagues even God’s special people provides the context for Jesus, the Servant described in the first few verses of this chapter.
1. 19:20b BUT When they cry to Jehovah because of oppressors, He will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them.
2. We need someone unstained by sin who was willing to walk in His ways, and who would give heed to God’s law to fulfill the role of God’s servant for us and flesh our justice on this earth.
3. We need someone who will enter that burning building, never growing faint or discouraged, and take the wrath of God being poured out on him.
4. We need somebody to gently rescue us from our helpless plight, trapped in sin with no one to deliver us.
5. That person is Jesus.
II) A dual application
1. Fix your eyes on God’s perfect servant, Jesus (Heb. 12).
(a) We find out about Jesus through reading the Bible and listening to it being read.
(b) We can’t physically see Jesus, but fixing our eyes on Him means:
(i) that we believe what the Bible says about Jesus,
(ii) that we think about Him and become preoccupied with what He is like
(iii) and seek to become like Him.
(c) Otherwise you are in the plight of the blind and deaf servant
(i) who thinks he’s all right,
(ii) who sees much but doesn’t keep it,
(iii) who is on fire and doesn’t realize it,
(iv) and who is caught off guard when the judgment comes.
Behold my Servant
2. Turn from sin and becoming a useful servant who advances God’s plan.
(a) v.19 “my servant” – Do you have a servant attitude? Is it is a delight to do whatever God wants?
(b) “my messenger” – Do you have a message? – Do you know how to tell the Gospel?
(c) “my perfected one” – Are you demonstrate what it is like to be perfected /sanctified – Acting out God’s ideals on this earth as it is in heaven?
(d) v.20 Are you a “keeper?” Who will watch over and protect God’s interests and not grow slack?
(e) v.23 “Who will give ear…lean closer and listen” – Are you a listener?
The apostle John recorded these words about believing in Jesus and becoming a servant of God:
· “He who believes in [the Son] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
· “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12
· “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:26
Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions
Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons