Trusting God in hard times
—Isaiah 55:1–13
Andrew Fountain – Aug 21, 2016 Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)
0. Historical Setting
First a little bit of background
The second half of Isaiah is addressed to the Israelites 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 temptation was to forget about God and the promises he made and to become like the nations
to take on their gods
to forget about following the true God
not to believe that God was going to be faithful in the end to his promises
Isaiah’s message was that people should hang on to the promises
There is yet to be a salvation that is brighter than they can imagine
They can see nothing of it
All they can see is hopelessness
But Isaiah calls them to believe in this promise
The only way they can believe is by faith because there is nothing that they can see
And into this context he speaks some of the most beautiful words that are to be found in Scripture:
Isaiah 53
He was despised and rejected by men;
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
Isaiah 53 cont’d
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
All we like sheep have gone astray;and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
These people were there because of their sin, justly, and yet these beautiful gospel promises come to them
Isaiah 54
Fear not, for you will not be ashamed!
For your husband is the one who made you —ORD who commands armies is his name.
Isaiah 54
“Indeed, the LORD will call you back
“For a short time I abandoned you,
These people are suffering, but he says “I’m committed to you!” I your husband, I am wedded to you
Isaiah 54
“Though the mountains be shaken ORD , the one who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
This is the Jerusalem that is burned and rubble. And he says that he is going to...
But this promise hasn’t happened yet!
So even though they had fallen awawy from God and were paying the price, God has not stopped loving them. 1. The Call
Read Isaiah 55:1-2
Come, all you who are thirsty,
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
Theme for these first verses “No Money Required”
Does this remind you of any passage in the N.T.?
Woman at the well.
John 7:37–38 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.’”
Come unto me all you that labour and I will give you rest
How are these people Isaiah is speaking to spending their wages then?
These verses are a beautiful invitation, saying “come to me”
We can imaging Isaiah standing up there and calling out these words
We see Jesus Christ on the last day of the feast when he called out
(verses above from John 7) 2. The Response (Obedience)
But what does this actually mean? How does someone actually come and buy?
This is what the next two verses explain: b. Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, Incline your ear, and come to me.
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.
So this is what they are actually to do
And in the next 2 verses he talks about the result of doing this 3. The Promise
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, ORD your God, Who is the “him” in these verses
the same one as two chapters earlier is to carry our sins
Here we have this man, this leader, this commander, and he is going to bring the glory
But this didn’t exactly happen to Israel
Back in the days of Solomon, all nations of the world came and brought tribute
e.g. the Queen of Sheba from Africa
The prophecy is that this is going to happen again
But it never happened to Israel, so what is it talking about?
It is talking about the “New Israel”, the Kingdom of God
From all nations people are coming in the Kingdom
So we see three things in these verses:
v.1–2 The Call
v.2–3 The Response
v.4–5 The Promise
Then once again he gives the call—well known verses.
Summary: Call :: Response :: Promise Seek the LORD while he may be found,
Let the wicked forsake his way, ORD , and he will have mercy on him;
How were they to seek the Lord and call upon him?
Simply by not trusting what everyone around us is saying, but to trust in the Lord
Even though everything is black I am going to believe this invisible promise
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
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: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, ORD .
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
For as the rain comes down,
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
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:
So shall my word be that goes forth God’s word, God’s promises
will inevitably happen
Just as the rain does not go back into the sky, but does God’s will For with joy you shall go out,
Then he ends by telling them about the extraordinary result of this word going forth
They will go out of Babylon with joy, such joy that it is as if the mountains themselves are bursting into song
These people are so exuberant at what God has done
“When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.” (Ps. 126:1)
Not in their wildest dreams could this have happened
Isaiah is saying, “Hold on to God’s promises and he will keep the beyond your wildest dreams”
You will be like children, jumping about with glee Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, ORD for a name,
Now things are desolate, but there will be..
This nation will not be cut off in captivity coming to a sad and dreary end in captivity
This actually happened to many other nations
Do you believe that God is active in your life
I don’t know what your struggles are at the moment
some of us have major ones, and some minor ones
but we are all tempted to doubt God
But he says he hasn’t forgotten—he is working =
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.