Trusting God in Hard Times

—Reading the O.T. in a way that lets it speak truly into our own lives—Isaiah 55:1–13 (Part 30 of Seeing Jesus in the O.T.)

Andrew Fountain – Oct 3, 2021

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Trusting God in Hard Times

Reading the O.T. in a way that lets it truly speak into our own lives

Read it in the historical context
and see how it fits the Big Story of the Bible
Pay attention to N.T. quotations from it
Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

1.Historical context

Isaiah falls into two halves
1. Chapters 1–43 are set in Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah
  - The Northern kingdom is taken off to captivity, but Judah in the south survive
2. Chapters 44–66 are written to a Judah in captivity in Babylon
  It is the same Isaiah, but he is writing prophetically forward in time
  - His prophecies are so accurate that unbelieving scholars have claimed it much be another person
  - But there are lots of indications in the writing style that the book is a unity with a single writer
So the second half of Isaiah is addressed to the nation of Israel in captivity
- they have been there a long time
- everything looks black
- homeland destroyed
- home city is burned with fire
- the temple is gone
The two empires who held them captive were brutally powerful and relentless
Here are some sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions

Isaiah 53

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 53 cont’d

But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
- and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Trusting God in Hard Times

Reading the O.T. in a way that lets it truly speak into our own lives

Historical context
Pay attention to N.T. quotations from it
Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

Isaiah 54

Fear not, for you will not be ashamed!
Do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated!
For you will forget about the shame of your youth;
you will no longer remember the disgrace of abandonment.
For your husband is the one who made you —
the LORD who commands armies is his name.
He is your protector, the Holy One of Israel.
“The God of the entire earth”, he is called

Isaiah 54

“Indeed, the LORD will call you back
like a wife, abandoned and in depression,
like a young wife when she has been rejected,”
says your God.
“For a short time I abandoned you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.

Isaiah 54

“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, the one who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will build you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with sapphires.”

The Call: Isaiah 55

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy without money
and without price, wine and milk.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
and your wages for what does not satisfy?

John 7

On the last day of the feast, the great day,
Jesus stood up and cried out,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

These verses from Isaiah were probably read out at this feast!
How are these people Isaiah is speaking to spending their wages then?
- Is it real water? No, satisfaction
- How was the woman at the well trying to satisfy herself? —relationships
  - Outside God, in the things that were around her similar to us
  - But then she believed Jesus and made the choice to follow him instead
This is their temptation—to give up the relationship with God and try to find their life in the things around them
- “No-one else is going to help me, I will have to help myself
  I can’t trust God—look at what he is doing for me now? —nothing!”
- Live like the people in the society they are immersed in
These verses are a beautiful invitation, saying “come to me”
- We can imagine Isaiah standing up there and calling out these words
- We see Jesus Christ on the last day of the feast when he called out
But what does this actually mean? How does someone actually come and buy?
- This is what the next two verses explain:

Response (Obedience)

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
the faithful love promised to David.

hear, listen carefully
- If you do that, you will have life, everlasting covenant, faithful love!
Does that mean that they just have to hear a few words and go away?
- In the Jewish language and culture, to “hear” does not just mean you comprehend the words, but you act on them
- Jesus said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
  - If you don’t obey, you haven’t really and truly “heard”
These people in captivity hadn’t totally given up on the idolatry that had caused them to be sent into captivity.
- It was still lurking in their hearts
- Isaiah says, “Come and put your trust fully on the Lord!”
- Believe these words that I am going to say
- You have a choice here:
  - Listen to yourself and what society around you is saying
  - Or you can obey me, and obey my words
  - This is how they are to come
- We have the same choice facing us
  What is society around us telling us will satisfy us??
  - Jesus’s call was to “come all you who labour...”
- What does it mean to come?
  - The come is to come and serve him as the focus of your life
So this is what they are actually to do
- And in the next 2 verses he talks about the result of doing this

The Promise

Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
a leader and commander for the people.
Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
and nations who do not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God,
and the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.

Call (again)

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
and he will have mercy on him;
and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon.

Trusting God in Hard Times

Reading the O.T. in a way that lets it truly speak into our own lives

Historical context
Pay attention to N.T. quotations from it
Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

3. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

Maybe you have some situation in your life where it seems like it is dark
- difficult, you don’t see a way out of it, you know its wrong, you know you shouldn’t be doing it
- God says “just trust me and things will work out”
- Its hard to do because there is no visible sign of anything
The problem is that when you are in difficulties, it’s hard to put yourself into a situation
- Trusting an invisible God
- who is making invisible promises
  - This is exactly the problem they were facing
God says, “just hold on and I will come through
- Eventually you will see something so wonderful that you cannot believe it
  - Something so amazing you can’t begin to grasp how wonderful it is
Have you seen darkness in your life?
- I have had times of darkness
- I can’t see how this is possibly going to work out
- Jesus simply says “come to me and I will answer your cry”
The problem in a situation like this is that we can’t see how God is going to do it.
- We can’t see how, so we don’t think he is going to
Can you imaging these people, far away in captivity, maybe born in captivity
- They are told about this land, how the cities are burned
How could they possibly be built up into a nation again
- There is no way!
Sometimes we say, there is no way God can help me. It is just too much of a mess
- And this is God’s answer:

Isaiah 55 cont’d

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain comes down,
and the snow from heaven,
and does not return there,
but waters the earth,
and make it bring forth,
and make it sprout
so that it may give
seed to the sower
and bread to the eater,

and then he gives an illustration about the way that God provides food
- (staircase parallelism)
- God’s ways are sometimes complex and indirect
If you are going to feed someone, isn’t that a roundabout way of doing it?
- If you said to me, “I am hungry, please give me something to eat”
- You would expect me to go to the refrigerator
- not like this
God’s ways are
- complicated & unfathomable
  - sometimes we pray about something, and God causes this to happen, which makes someone to that, which has that effect, and so on until it eventually comes down to me and solves my problem
    - This is how God likes to work!
    - God likes to work in mysterious ways, unfathomable, complex
    - Like the wind in John 3
    - e.g. 3 Mormons at the door, right as we are about to start homegroup
- secret, mysterious
- complex,indirect
- In this way he can display his amazing power
His ways are totally different to ours
If his ways were like our ways, then we could say it looked black and it would be black
But because... things can be totally black but about to burst forth in amazing glory
- These people were about to see the most remarkable event happen
- These people were about to see the Emperor, Cyrus,
  - allow them to go back home
    - Give them money
  - pay for the rebuilding
  - offer them military protection
    - in an extraordinary way
    - A way that they would never have believed had you told them
God applies this:

Isaiah 55 cont’d

For as the rain comes down,
and the snow from heaven,
and does not return there,
but waters the earth,
and make it bring forth,
and make it sprout
so that it may give
seed to the sower
and bread to the eater,
So shall my word be that goes forth
from my mouth;
it shall not return to me void,
but it shall accomplish what I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing
for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55 cont’d

For with joy you shall go out,
and in peace be led forth;
the mountains and the hills shall burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55 cont’d

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
and it shall be to the LORD for a name,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah 54

“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, the one who has compassion on you.

Now I want to address a very damagine false teaching that is around
- “Name it and Claim it”
- “Faith is about speaking out what you want, and believing it will happen”
  - If it doesn’t happen, then you haven’t had enough faith.
  - e.g. I now claim a lottery win and speak out that I will win the Ontario October draw
- “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”
  - Faith is believing what God has said, not what you have claimed
- So here, they could belived these incredible promises because God has said them!
  - What has God promised us?
If you put your trust in him
- and that means not trying to satisfy yourself with what the world around you suggests
- or with God
If you are not a Christian
- This is an invitation that is offered to you...
Ask him to forgive you for doubting him
- Lord forgive me for trying to solve my problems in a way that I know is not right”
and he will come through, beyond your wildest dreams!
- In that day when he comes in Glory, none of us can begin to imagine the joy we will have
Remember, God is working, and he never breaks his promises.