Isaiah 48:14-22
SS Lesson for 01/16/11
Devotional Scripture: Heb 10 19-25
The majority of the outline of the lesson came from the Bible Expositor and Illuminator. This week's lesson teaches how God's Reassurance to His People. The study's aim is to realize that our God gives us reassurance when we need it most. The study's application is when we need reassurance, we need to turn to the only One who can do all things for us.
What Might Have Been
Past failures can be paralyzing. Some who have made poor educational and career choices are now crushed under the weight of unfulfilling jobs. Some who rushed quickly into marriage struggle to maintain healthy relationships and keep promises. Others who neglected spending time with their children now regret the quality of the relationships that have resulted. Christians and non-Christians alike are plagued with regrets about the past. Sometimes we wish we could do it all over again. We wonder “what might have been” if only we had made better choices. The Israelites found themselves in a similar situation. They had a bright future when God called them out of slavery in Egypt. With his promise to be with them and to prosper their every step, they were poised to flourish. Yet they violated their side of the covenant and traded success for failure.
It was tempting for them to give up altogether (see the book of Lamentations). But God would not allow them to do that. In today’s Scripture, he both reminds the Israelites of what might have been and beckons them to the new future that still could be. In so doing, God also reminds us that our worst failures need not be the last word for our lives. Though we cannot change the past, God can guide our future.
Lesson Background
As we noted last week, the Babylonians had taken full control of the southern kingdom of the Israelites, called Judah, by 586 BC. That was about 136 years after Assyria had done the same to the northern kingdom, called Israel. In 586 BC, the temple was destroyed, its vessels were confiscated, and many people were deported to Babylon. God had foretold that this would happen if the Israelites did not repent of their sin. Yet it was still difficult for the people to process what was happening to them. They were devastated. The book of Lamentations captures the sense of desperation that overcame God’s people at this time. Last week we saw God promise to vindicate Israel in the eyes of the nations. This week he encourages Israel not to dwell on her past failures. God is ready to move forward. Those who wish to go forward with him had to get on board.
While both Israel and the church have a special relationship with God under different dispensations, this does not preclude His use of other nations or individuals to fulfill His divine purposes. When the northern kingdom of Israel backslid, God used Assyria to bring judgment upon His people. Hence, God referred to Assyria as the rod of His anger and the staff of His indignation (Isa. 10:5). When the southern kingdom of Judah followed suit, God used Babylon to chastise her. Yahweh said, "Behold, I will send ... Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, . . . and will utterly destroy them" (Jer. 25:9; cf. Ezek. 23:1-4, 22-30; Hab. 1:6-7). The Jews would "serve the king of Babylon seventy years" (Jer. 25:11). They would be released by the order of King Cyrus, described as God's "shepherd" (Isa. 44:28). Cyrus did not do this of his own volition but because "the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" (2 Chron. 36:22), prompting him to release the Jews. That some of the people God used throughout history were pagans does not mean God approves of evil. It only underscores that He can use anyone and anything He chooses to accomplish His will. We all have experienced times when we can go no further. Even God seems to be removed and distant. Yet we know we must keep moving forward. It is at such times that we hear that quiet, inner voice reminding us that our God has not quit working on our behalf but is still there, as active as ever. Then He comes through for us, showing us what He can do. Our lesson this week is about the reassurance that we need daily. For Christians to keep moving forward on the journey that is set for us by our God, we need constant reassurance that He is walking beside us and that He is in total charge. Our lesson this week gives us the reassurance that He is God and has not left us on our own. In fact, we get the reassurance that He is the One who gives us His blessing when we follow His ways.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
14 "All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
16 "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me."
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
26 He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."
14 The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
43 But now, this is what the Lord says — he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off Nor destroyed from before Me."
20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, Declare, proclaim this, Utter it to the end of the earth; Say, "The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!"
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
2 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.
27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him.
28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the Lord.
2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. 18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. 19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, 20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
21 And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
22 "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
2 "I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth," declares the Lord. 3 "I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth," declares the Lord.
13 "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals,
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Past failures were not the final word for the Israelites. After the Babylonian captivity, many returned to Jerusalem to rebuild. Life was not easy. It took several Persian emperors and Jewish leaders plus 10 decades before Jerusalem, its temple, and the walls were rebuilt. Indeed, the mills of God grind slowly from an earthly perspective. So it is tempting to lose hope. Christians continue to suffer—sometimes because of personal unfaithfulness, sometimes because of the unfaithfulness of others. Yet we are to keep focused on the hope that is before us (Philippians 3:13, 14). Sometimes God delivers us from the trials that befall us, sometimes he delivers us through them. May Christians always be those who push forward to that which will most certainly be, not being held back by what might have been.
Our text applies primarily to God's use of Cyrus, the Persian king, as both His instrument of divine judgment upon the Babylonian Empire and His instrument of divine salvation and t preservation for His chosen people. Israel's idolatry and wickedness had precipitated their utter conquest and captivity by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. But the current prophecy foresees a later time, when a subsequent Babylonian regime would have allowed the once great military empire to become decadent and weak, ripe for conquest by the newer, stronger nation. It is quite plain from the text that this situation was within the plan of God to fulfill His covenant toward His chosen people. He would punish His people's enemies and rescue and preserve a faithful remnant of Israelites for the purpose of eventually repopulating the Promised Land. Here we are struck by a seeming paradox involving God's sovereignty— namely, that God ordains both the agent who punishes His people's sins and the agent who will punish the punisher for setting themselves at enmity against His people in the first place. Babylon had done God's bidding , concerning Israel's sin; but now their own judgment for daring to set themselves against God's people had come due. No wonder, then, that the writer of Hebrews exclaimed, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31)! The text also highlights the principle of God's unquenchable zeal for the holiness of His own name, for the unassailable glory of His own reputation, and for the ultimate vindication of His chosen people. Nothing stands for long in the way of God's zeal for these things. A secondary application of this prophecy is perhaps also in order. It concerns the advent of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ exemplified this same zeal for the holiness of God's name, the glory of His reputation, and the justification of God's elect. In the case of both Cyrus and Christ, God's calling was as irrevocable as it was unexpected. In Cyrus, God called a pagan king His ally for the accomplishment of His people's salvation. In Jesus, God ordained that an obscure carpenter's Son would be the fulfillment of all the prophetic hopes of the Holy Scriptures, the embodiment and earthly manifestation of the fullness of His divine nature, and the final Saviour and eternal Monarch of His kingdom. God's gifts and calling can never be revoked (Rom. 11:29). Once He has spoken His intentions, the fullness of His almighty power will be behind their inevitable accomplishment. So it was with Cyrus, and so it is with Christ. The success of God's kingdom enterprise in Christ, begun in humble obscurity thousands of years ago, is inevitable. God will make sure it succeeds, and woe unto any who seek to hinder its success. Though such people, like Judas Iscariot, are part of His sovereign plan, it would have been better for them had they never been born. May God's name be always hallowed and glorified in the triumph of His elect! Amen!
1. Our sovereign God can accomplish His purposes however and through whomever He chooses (Isa. 48:14-15)
2. You can trust a God who has openly foretold the future without one failure (vs. 16)
3. Our holy God seeks to lead His people into what is best for them and His glory (vs. 17)
4. Continued disobedience leads to God's righteous discipline (vs. 18-19)
5. Obedience leads to God's fullest blessing (vs. 21)
6. There will never be lasting peace for those who reject God and His Word (vs. 22)
As I write this lesson, the entire world is experiencing unprecedented levels of uncertainty and anxiety of life. The United States is seeing extraordinary outbreaks of social unrest, economic dislocation, and religious hostilities. As a result, Americans, like vast numbers of people all over the world, are searching for reassurance that everything is going to be OK. The problem is that many are searching everywhere except the inerrant Word of God. As we see in this week's lesson text, God spoke again through the Prophet Isaiah to His people, Israel. In their own time of spiritual uncertainty, God provided words of reassurance that He was still intimately involved in their lives.
God's people would endure the Babylonian Captivity, and they would be ready for it to come to an end. God wanted His people to know that He would not utterly abandon them; so He called them to assemble. He then revealed that He would exercise His sovereignty and use Cyrus, the king of Persia, to one day effect their release. It is so very easy for God's people to become consumed by the futile cynicism of a culture that tries to provide security and happiness but ultimately is impotent to accomplish the task. In the midst of overwhelming uncertainty, God's people must embrace His revealed truth and saturate their minds with it. Only then will they develop an enduring faith in God's sovereignty.
Once again, God called for His people to assemble themselves and listen to His words of reassurance. He wanted His people to know that He was still providing direction for their lives. God never stops guiding His people; He is always present with them. He is committed to teaching His people how to live right and revealing to them what to do and where to go. In the midst of moral and spiritual darkness, God's people have not been abandoned. God is still giving direction to His people. More than ever, they need to embrace the truth proclaimed in Psalm 32:8: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."
God passionately desired to provide good things for His people. If His children had lived lives of obedience, they, would have been bountifully supplied with peace, righteousness, and progeny. Israel's history affirms this truth. When the people wandered through the desert wilderness, even there God provided them with refreshing water. Only the wicked do not know the peace God can provide. Well-known verses of Scripture sometimes are taken for granted. One of the first verses I memorized is "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). Over the years, especially during seasons of prosperity, it has been tempting to give only token service to that verse while actually indulging in comfortable self-sufficiency. The truth still remains, though, that all that we have comes from our incredible Provider. Please remember that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).