14. Thus says Jehovah,
“The product of Egypt,
and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
and the Arab men of measure
will come over to you
and will be yours.
They will walk behind you;
in chains they will come over,
and to you they will bow,
to you they will pray.
Surely, God is with you
and there is not another – no more gods!”
15. Surely you are a God who hides Yourself; the God of Israel is a Savior.
16. All of them have blanched and have also been ashamed;
crafters of shapes walked into shame together.
17. Israel was saved by Jehovah - everlasting salvations.
Y’all will not blanch or be ashamed - unless eternity ends!
18. For thus says Jehovah:
He is the God, Creator of the heavens.
He is the God, former of the earth and maker of it.
He Himself established it.
It was not aimless; He created it; He formed it to be inhabited.
“I am Jehovah, and there is not another.
19. I did not speak in the hiding place,
in the location of a land of darkness.
I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek me aimlessly.’
I am Jehovah, speaking righteousness, declaring what is right.
20. Assemble and come, fugitives of the nations,
make a case for yourselves together.
The ones lifting up wood - their idol - and praying to a god that will not save, they did not know.
21. Make a declaration and make a case. Let them also take counsel together.
Who caused this to be heard from before - from the past declared it?
Was it not I, Jehovah?
And there is not another god besides me,
a God of righteousness and the One who causes to save.
There is none besides me.
22. Face toward me and be saved, all ends of earth!
For I am God and there is not another.
23. By myself I have sworn;
righteousness has gone out of my mouth - a word, and it will not turn back
- that to me every knee will bow; every tongue will swear.
24. It says to me, ‘Righteousness and strength are only in Jehovah!’”
Unto Him it will come,
and all who were incensed with Him will blanch.
25. In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be righteous and will praise.
A 15-year-old boy walked into the Artillery Street Primitive Methodist Church in Kelvedon, England on a snowy Sunday in January 1850. He entered hesitantly, as he had heard that Methodists sang so loudly that they made one's head ache.
The Pastor was sick, so one of the men in the church went to the pulpit to lead the service. He hastily selected a text, Isaiah 45:22, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Young Spurgeon noticed he could not even pronounce his words right. The substitute said repeatedly, "Look, it is just look!” He was obliged to stick to the text for the simple reason he had little else to say. Afterwards Spurgeon reported, "…he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable. And you always will be miserable - miserable in life and miserable in death - if you don’t obey the text. But if you obey now, this moment you will be saved. Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live." Spurgeon said, "I can never tell you how it was, but I no sooner saw whom I was to believe than I also understood what it was to believe...As the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake… told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God."
Spurgeon preached his first sermon in August the same year. He began to pass out tracts, and teach a Sunday School class, and then at age 17, he became the pastor of a small village Church named Waterbeach. At age 19, he moved on to pastor New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, London. Before he was 20 years old he had preached over 600 times. Under his ministry, New Park Street Church grew from 232 members to 5,311 members.
In what turned out to be his last sermon on June 7, 1891, Charles Spurgeon told those gathered: "These forty years and more have I served Him, blessed be His name! I have had nothing but love from Him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if so it pleased Him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day!"
The powerful word of God from Isaiah that brought about the salvation of one of the greatest preachers who ever lived, is the text before us today.
1) “To you” is emphasized in this verse.
a) “You” is singular and there is no subject in the nearby verses to relate it to.
b) Jewish commentators say “you” is Israel;
c)
Most Christian commentators say it
is the church.
I Cor. 14:24-25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in,
he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. 25 And thus the secrets of his
heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship
God and report that God is truly among you.
(NKJ)
d) But let me suggest that it is the Messiah. If you go back to verses 2-5, you find the same singular “you” attributed to Cyrus who is called a messiah/anointed one. This messiah figure appears to be behind this whole chapter, but it develops from the Persian prince Cyrus to its fulfillment in the Messiah Jesus Christ.
(i) In verses 1-5 it is unmistakably Cyrus – called by the name Cyrus, conquering kings, and collecting wealth.
(ii) In the middle of the chapter, vs. 13-14 it could well apply to either Jesus or Cyrus –
· both were raised up in righteousness,
· both had their ways prepared ahead of time,
· both were builders (Cyrus commissioned reconstruction of the earthly Jerusalem using the merchandise of the surrounding nations; Jesus is the builder of the heavenly Jerusalem made of living stones – people like you and me from all the nations!),
· both set captives free without any payment,
· and both would be bowed down to and prayed to and acknowledged as the one blessed by God.
(iii) At the end of the chapter, the Messiah figure can no longer be Cyrus, it is unmistakably Jesus Christ, the one to whom ALL flesh will come (Psalm 65:2), to whom EVERY knee will bow and every tongue swear, who will judge the earth and humiliate ALL who hated Him.
1) Mitzraim/Egypt, Cush/Ethiopia, Sabaens/Arabs
2) Conversion described:
a) Coming over, following,
b) Giving themselves to be your possession,
c) Bowing and praying, acknowledging the one true God,
d) The last two Hebrew words in the verse can be rendered literally “end of gods” – i.e. making an end of all the other gods. No more gods for me, I’ve found the one true God.
At any rate, this conversion and salvation is to be for Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Arabs - for the nations not just the Jews.
1) May different interpretations:
a) Hiding through 70 years of exile, then saving through Cyrus’ decree in 536 BCE (Slotki)
b) Eternal salvation is not immediately visible to the physical eye, rather it appears that the wicked prosper. This is why we are called to faith (Heb. 10) and to patient hope (Romans 8:24) (Calvin)
c) “Hidden under the clouds of the contemporary situation… unknowable except by revelation” (Young)
d) Hiding within a chosen people (Delitzsch)
2) “Hide” is parallel to “save” – both present tense
a) Jesus hiding His glory when He comes to earth in order to save (Hab. 3:4, Phil. 2)
b) Colossians 1:24 speaks of the Gospel being a “mystery hidden for past ages and generations but now revealed to the saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
God’s salvation of people from all nations was hidden until the time of Christ.
1) We meditated on how idolatry brings shame two weeks ago when we studied Isaiah 44:
2) Literally “turn dry and white” and then “turn red,” thus my translation “blanch” and “blush,” quite a lot of synonyms, including “humiliated” (NAS), “disgraced” (NKJ, NIV), “confounded” (KJV), “ashamed.”
3) Note that this is not merely political salvation from foreign dominion, but moral salvation from shame. This points from the political deliverance of Cyrus to the salvation from the shame of sin which Jesus brought. (Delitzsch)
4)
There is a dramatic contrast
between the shame of the idol-makers and the salvation of the people of God – Israel. This is not only talking of the contrast between the “sheep and the goats” at the
end of time, but also of the contrasting life that comes to someone from the
nations who is saved by God’s grace.
1 Cor. 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God.
1) Over-the-top wording:
a) Not just one salvation, but plural salvations – abundantly plentiful;
b) “Forever” repeated twice: “to all eternity” (NAS/ESV), “to ages everlasting” (NIV), “for ever and ever” (NKJ), “world without end” (KJV), “Unless eternity ends” (NAW).
2) If you have been saved, you are abundantly saved from here on out. There is no condemnation, no shame for you who are in Christ Jesus! (Rom. 8:1)
a) When Satan the “Accuser” reminds you of your past, you will not be ashamed
b) When you see your weakness and inability to take care of the future, don’t be afraid, your salvation is forever!
3) “Where are you looking for security? Money – it can go like that. Health – it can go like that. There is only one place of security in this world, and that is in the center of God’s will, trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior, walking with Him.” –Frank Barker II
This is explained in terms of four NOT’S in v.18-19, combatting four great lies of the devil:
We’ve seen in verses 14-19 a description of salvation: It is a salvation for the nations through God’s Messiah; it is a hidden salvation; it is an everlasting salvation, and it was purposefully crafted by God Himself. So…
1) Idolaters “don’t know/have no knowledge” (v.20). Ignorance is deadly.
2) But God intends to save the nations, so He addresses His instruction to the “fugitives of the nations” who have escaped His wrath and are running away from bondage to dead idols.
3)
God encourages us to “take counsel”
– to learn wisdom from Him (v.21)
Isaiah highlights the wisdom can be gained through Biblical prophecy –
to rephrase v.20, God says, “None of your idols could predict the rise of Cyrus
or the rebuilding of Jerusalem centuries before the fact. Only I can do that.
Therefore know this: I am the only God who saves!”
4) This knowledge is also confirmed with an oath. v.23 – “By myself I have sworn, righteousness has gone out of my mouth” This phrase alludes with the covenant God made with Abraham to bless him and bring salvation to all the nations:
a) Gen. 22:16 – By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son… indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens… In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.
b) Heb. 6:13ff – When God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way, God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us ... (NAS)
c) “God always keeps this object in view: to fortify the faith of the people against all assaults... [He does this through promises (v.17), through prophecy (v.21), and through an oath (v.23).] We ought to observe the reason why He ‘swears.’ It is because He intended to aid the weakness of His people, so that they might not be tossed about in uncertainty. This certainly is wonderful condescension, that, in order to remedy the fault of our distrust, He does not scruple to bring forward His own name as holding the place of a pledge; and the more base and disgraceful must be our unbelief, if even [His] oath does not satisfy us.” – John Calvin
5) Three things are repeated 7x each in this passage about God as essential knowledge for salvation:
a) His uniqueness:
(i) V.5 – I am Jehovah and there is no other, besides me there are no gods
(ii) V.6 – there is none besides me, I am Jehovah and there is not another
(iii) V.14 – Surely God is with you, and there is no other, no more gods
(iv) V.18 – I am Jehovah, and there is not another
(v) V.21 – I Jehovah, and there is not another god besides me, a God of righteousness and a Savior, there is none besides me.
(vi) V. 22 – I am God and there is not another
(vii) V.24 - Only in Jehovah are righteousness and strength
What about you, do you believe that God is the only source of truth and wisdom, the only source of right and wrong? The only creator of the world? The only one who should ever be worshipped?
b) His righteousness:
(i) V.8 – let righteousness rain down…let righteousness sprout…I Jehovah created it
(ii) V.13 – I stirred him up in righteousness
(iii) V.19 – I declare what it right
(iv) V.21 – a God of righteousness
(v) V.23 – righteousness has gone out of my mouth
(vi) V.24 – Only in Jehovah are righteousness and strength
(vii) V.25 – In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be righteous
What about you, do you believe that God is good? Do you submit to His standards of right and wrong? Do you believe that He can make you righteous?
c) His salvation:
(i) V.8 – salvation will bear fruit… I Jehovah created it
(ii) V.15 – The God of Israel is a Savior
(iii) V.17 – Israel is saved by Jehovah – an everlasting salvation
(iv) V.20 – praying to a [wooden carving] that will not save
(v) V.21 – me, a God of righteousness and the One who causes to save
(vi) V.22 – Face me and be saved
What about you, do you believe that you need to be saved? Do you know that Jesus has saved you?
6) This knowledge/belief must be declared:
a) “make a case” – seems to be a court context where God presides and says, “Talk to me – say something!”
b) “swear” (end of v.23)
(i) Perhaps in the sense of swearing allegiance (ESV supplies the word allegiance).
(ii) Swearing by God is an implicit acknowledgement that He is the final arbiter of truth (Heb. 6).
(iii) Note God is the first actor – He is the first to swear in v.23, then His people swear. And what will they swear?
c) “It [the tongue] says to me, only in Jehovah are righteousness and strength” or “only in the Lord to me are righteousness and strength” – depending on where you put the “to me.” This is what each tongue will say. (v.24)
d) Romans 10:9-10 …if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (NIV)
e) God encourages us to go beyond simply believing in our hearts to openly declaring what we believe to others, that He is unique above all gods, He is righteous, and that He is the savior.
f) This, however, is not a mere processing of facts, salvation is…
1) Come (v.20), draw near (v.20), turn to me/face me (v.22)
a)
The verb is a form of the Hebrew
word for “face” –
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and
grace.”
b) Conversion involves turning away from idols and turning toward God.
(i) Psalm 22:27 – the Psalm that describes Jesus’ crucifixion concludes that “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You.”
(ii) I Thess. 1:9 – …you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
(iii) In Acts 14:15, Paul exhorted the people of Lystra, “You should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.”
c) Note that this is not just addressed to the Jews, but to “all the ends of the earth,” promising that “all the seed of Israel will be justified” - which of course is not true of the physical nation of Israel, but is true of the spiritual seed of Israel (Rom 11:25, 9:6-8) – all the Jews and Gentiles who trust in Jesus as their savior.
In addition to the relational stance of turning toward God there is also the stance of submission:
2) Bow the knee and swear by me
a) This is an attitude of submission. It is saying,
(i) You are greater than me when it comes to strength, and so I bow my knee.
(ii) You are greater than me when it comes to truth and righteousness, so I will appeal to your greater righteousness whenever I swear.
b) Isaiah has already prophecied this in 19:18 – In that day, 5 cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of Hosts
c) It is pictured by bowing down in chains in v.14. – Egypt, Ethopia, and Arabs will come over to you and be yours, they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you; they will pray to you, “Surely God is with you”
d) This passage is mentioned twice again in the Bible:
(i) Rom. 14:11 – We will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. (NAS)
(ii) Phil. 2:8-11 – Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death by crucifixion. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
e) Do you see how this points to Messiah Jesus as the savior at the end? – no longer Cyrus!
f) Note: Universal lordship, but not universal salvation:
(i) There will be people at the end of time who continue in their rebellion against God and who will be forced to bow and confess that God has the righteousness and strength to make them bow. In this way every knee will bow to the universal lordship of Christ.
(ii) Others will willingly bow in adoration of Jesus, confessing that they have no righteousness, but that His righteousness and strength have flowed to them through His death on the cross, and that He is their savior. Not every one will do this; not everyone will be saved; only those who pay homage to the Son of God in faith willingly.
So we are saved by a right knowledge of God and by a right relationship with God, which is oriented toward Him and is submissive to Him. There is one more phrase which describes this relationship:
3) Be “in Jehovah”
a) We find this phrase “in Jehovah/in the LORD” three times in this passage:
(i) Israel has been saved in Jehovah (v.17)
(ii) Only in Jehovah are righteousness and strength (v.24)
(iii) In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be righteous and shall praise (v.25)
b) The only way to be considered righteous by God and to be saved from His wrath against unrighteousness is to be found “in Him,” for since He alone makes the rules for right and wrong based on His nature, only He is righteous.
c) When we trust in Jesus, we become united to Him, we become the bride of Christ.
d) Paul repeats the phrase “in Christ/in Him” a dozen times throughout Ephesians 1 to underscore this, for example, V.7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (NAS)
e) Phil. 3:8-9 I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (NIV)
This is the way of salvation as laid out by Isaiah. This is the same salvation which converted Charles Spurgeon and it will transform you if you believe it.
It is for you, no matter what nation you are from.
It is a hidden salvation but not hard to find;
It is an everlasting salvation upheld by the power of the God who created the world.
It is obtained by knowing that God is above all gods, that He is righteous, and that He has provided for your salvation through Jesus.
It is embraced by turning away from all other idols and turning toward Jesus, humbly confessing Him to be your master and living a life which is connected to Him – in Him.
This is how you will be found righteous and this is how you will be able to praise God!
If you already believe these things and have confessed them before others, be encouraged in your faith. There is no reason to doubt whether or not you will be saved if you are trusting in Jesus. You can have the full confidence that your salvation is everlasting – you will never again be put to shame. Bank on it!
If you have not taken the step of turning to God and confessing your faith in His salvation, I encourage you to ask God right now to save you through His Son Jesus as we pray together.
Return to Christ The Redeemer Church Sermon Page