We begin this week with God proclaiming His greatness in creation and in context this is to be compared with false gods and idols.
Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: "I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."
Isaiah 42:5-9
God draws us back to remember His sovereignty over the heavens and also that He upholds it. If He were to withdrawn then the "breath" and "spirit" of all of us and all on the earth would be gone. He tells us these things so that we can rest in Him and have confidence in our salvation.
When we think about our security in our salvation it is verses such as these that I find really encouraging. God has called us in righteousness. He takes us by the hand and keeps us. We are a fulfillment of covenant as He helps us (For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Hebrews 2:16) in a testament written with His blood (In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 1 Corinthians 11:25).
Through the Church, Christ is a light to the nations, He opens eyes that are blind, and He sets prisoners free. God, through Isaiah declared all of this 700 years before the Cross and has made it real in our lives 2000 years after the cross.
Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in lthe coastlands.
Isaiah 42:10-12
When you sing a hymn today you are part of God's work in fulfillment of these verses. It isn't just Palestine that hears these words. It is every part of the world including you.
Did you ever think how many "new songs" have been sung to God? Songs are new in each heart made alive by the power of God. Songs are also new in languages that were previously without the Gospel. Pentecost sent forth many new songs but even in our outreach to Benin we may stimulate praise in a new language as unreached people become reached and in hearts that previously did not praise God. Likewise when God blesses evangelism in our community, then new songs come from hearts that were dead.
While the conqueror of Isaiah 41:1-4 provoked idolatry but God's Servant provokes worship.
The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.
Isaiah 42:13-15
God's plan was such a plan full of wonder that God rejoices in its completion. His plans were plans from the foundation of the earth. He waited with holy patience and changed the landscape of salvation. What the law could not do because it functioned through human flesh God did by sending His own Son. That changed everything.
And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."
Isaiah 42:16-17
He led this blind man in a way he did not know. He also led me in paths I couldn't walk though so He had to guide me. He is the author and finisher of my faith. He justified me and He will continue to work in my life to sanctify me. This is something I learn after salvation and not at salvation. At my salvation I may not have understood that I was led and guided. I might even have taken the credit for my good decision. I did take the credit for my good decision and tried to evangelize from that position of pride. God had to explain to me that He made my heart live and He led me and He guided and guides me.
He illuminates our future and prepares the way for us to walk. I think Scripture illuminates these verses of Isaiah best in Ephesians 2:8-17.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Here is God's sovereignty in our salvation experience. The start is said to be monergistic because God must overcome our dead hearts by grace as a gift to justify us before God. The working out is said to be synergistic because God prepares works beforehand that we should walk in them. We should act. We should pray. You won't confuse God or prevent Him from ultimately accomplishing His will but you may grieve the Holy Spirit if you neglect prayer and living out what God has prepared for you.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Our situation was hopeless in the extreme. We were separated by Christ because our wills were not subject to God and we would not willingly submit them to God. We were also alienated from what God had promised to do in Israel and we had no part in the covenants of promise. We, each of us, had no hope. And "no hope" doesn't mean a little tiny bit of hope. We were, and many around us are, utterly lost. Spontaneous generation was a myth of a few generations ago. Spontaneous regeneration is at least as great a myth. Regeneration is not spontaneous. On the contrary it is God breathed. It is like the wind; you don't see where it comes from or goes to but you see the impact. The unsaved heart needs resurrection not healing and our society needs this in the form of a revival.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Ephesians 2:8-17
We (Gentiles) were far off but the blood of Christ brings us near. He has made Gentile and Jew one man. His one body reconciles us and makes us one in Christ. Under the Blood (through the Cross), Christ has eliminated the hostility against God in both Jew and Gentile hearts and the hostility toward sin that God has for those Jews and Gentiles who are now one man. He preached peace for those who were near (the Jews) and peace to those who were far off (the Gentiles). I hope that you can appreciate the light that God has given to us who were in darkness to understand these things.
Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, "Restore!" Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
Isaiah 42:18-25
I think in our age and society we see may of those exposed to the Gospel (but not converted by the Gospel) acting like the Old Testament Jews. We clearly have many who are nominal Christians in our nation today who don't see what God has demonstrated or hear what He has said. The basic information is there but the interpretation and understanding is lost. Seeing without observing. Hearing but not "hearing" in the sense that your parents used the word and said, "Do you hear me?"
When the Church in the United States has trouble, or when I have trouble, the first thing to do is to look at my relationship to the Word of God. I need to be in agreement with the Word and not disagreement. If I can keep my heart in agreement with the Word then difficulties in this world will just be opportunities for God to be glorified.
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