Isaiah 39

 

God has given us an unspeakable gift

 

1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.

 

  • This king of Babylon sent a gift and Hezekiah showed them all Israel’s wealth.
  • Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but thegift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
  • 2Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for hisunspeakable gift.

 

And Hezekiah was glad and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, all the house of his armor/weapons/artillery, and all that was found in his treasuries: there was nothing in his house, or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say? And where did they come from to you? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.

 

  • Babylon was the source of all false worship.
  • It’s beginning was at the tower of Babel where, in Genesis 11, God mixed up the languages of the human race so that they could not unite against Him.

 

4 Then he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 6 Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that your fathers have laid up in store until this day, will be carried to Babylon: nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And of your sons that will come forth from you, which you will beget, they will take away; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD that you have spoken. He said moreover, For there will be peace and truth in my days.

 

  • The phrase ‘do not be deceived’ is found 24 times in the Holy Scriptures.
  • God has told us all truth in His word so that we won’t be deceived.
  • Why did Hezekiah show the ambassadors from Babylon everything in his domain?
  • Hezekiah didn’t need anything from the king of Babylon. He had the Lord of heaven and earth.
  • Luke 21:8 And he said, Take heed that youare not deceived.
  • Romans 8: 31 If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things?

 

 

                                             Isaiah 40

 

The LORD comforts His people

 

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak to the heart to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

 

  • Jeremiah 16:18 …I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
  • Luke 12:48 to whom much is given, of him much will be required.
  • Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
  • 2Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and theGod of all comfort.
  • Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither will there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

 

His glory will be revealed

 

3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be made low: and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

 

  • The LORD comes to rule.
  • Ezekiel 1: 26-28 describes the glory of the Lord as a man of fiery amber flashing forth rainbows sitting on a sapphire throne.
  • Isaiah32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

 

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What do I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its grace as the flower of the field: 7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows on it: surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God will stand forever.

 

  • Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will not pass away.

 

9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that nurse/suckle young.

 

  • The Lord will rule wonderfully and tenderly.
  • Ezekiel 34:11-16 says that He will seek out His scattered flock, heal them and feed them in safe, fat pastures.

 

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out heaven with the span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

 

  • The ‘span’ is the distance between the thumb and the forefinger. God measures the universe between His thumb and forefinger.

 

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor has taught him? 14 With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing. 16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, or its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

 

  • If God had to ask someone how to do something, then that person would be greater than God.
  • He needs no one to direct or teach Him.
  • He lifts islands as if they were specks of dust.

 

18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? 19 The workman pours out a carved image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains. 20 He that is so impoverished that he has no offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks a cunning workman to prepare a carved image that cannot be moved.

 

  • If you have to make chains to hold it up how is it going to do anything for you?

 

21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sits on the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in.

 

He brings princes of the earth to nothing; He makes judges empty

 

23 That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity. 24 Yes, they will not be planted; yes, they will not be sown: yes, their stock will not take root in the earth: and he will blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like straw. 25 To whom then will you liken me, or will I be equal, asks the Holy One? 26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power; not one fails. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over by my God?

 

  • The movements of the stars are mathematically precise.
  • Man cannot even count them all but God calls them all by name and keeps them on minutely precise courses day after day, year after year.
  • Psalm 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

 

He is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; He gives power to the faint

 

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. 30 Even the youths faint and are weary, and the young men will utterly fall: 31 But they that wait on the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles; they will run, and not be weary; and they will walk, and not faint.

 

  • The word ‘renew’ means exchange. When we wait on Him, get quiet in His presence, He exchanges our strength for His.
  • He never gets tired of holding us up, though we can weary Him with our sins.
  • Isaiah 43:24 .you made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.

 

                                              Isaiah 41

 

1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. 2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. 3 He pursued them, and passed safely; by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

 

  • Notice the connection between keeping silent before God and renewing our strength. If our minds are busy with other things, there is no place for God.
  • God is the one who did all these things. He rules over the nations and the universe.
  • Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait on the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles; they will run, and not be weary; and they will walk, and not faint.

 

The Lord is the first and the last who He calls forth the generations

 

4 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and the last; I am he. 5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. 6 Every one helped his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be strong. 7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that struck the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it not be moved.

 

  • These idols can’t even stand up by themselves. How can they help us?
  • The Lord is the source and destiny of all.
  • Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

 

8 But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from its chief men, and said to you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away.

 

  • We all know how painful it is to be rejected by someone.
  • Imagine being rejected by God.
  • He has chosen us and not cast us away.
  • Also, v 9 tells us that Abraham was a leader in Ur when God called him.

 

10 Fear not; for I am with you: do not be dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. 11 Behold, all those that were incensed against you will be ashamed and confounded: they will be as nothing; and those that strive with you will perish. 12 You will seek them, and will not find them, even them that contended with you: they that war against you will be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.

 

He holds our right hand saying to us, Do not fear, I will help you

 

13 For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you. 14 Do not fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the LORD, and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

 

  • Christ bought us back to God at the most outrageous price ever paid for anything.
  • 1Peter 1:18, 19 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your empty life received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

 

15 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills as chaff. 16 You will fan them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them: and you will rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel. 17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

 

He’s going to plant trees in the wilderness and in the desert

 

19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the boxwood together: 20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21 Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.

 

  • Jacob is God’s name for Jacob (and us) as sinners, before we are transformed into God’s sons by His truth and His love.
  • Israel (prince of God) was God’s name for him (us) after God had refined him.
  • He calls Himself the ‘King of Jacob.’ By doing this, He claims us at our worst.

 

22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what will happen: let them show the former things, what they are that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yes, do good, or do evil that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 24 Behold, you are worse than nothing, and your work is worse than a viper: he that chooses you is an abomination.

 

  • Deuteronomy 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you are not to be afraid of him.

 

25 I have raised up one from the north, and he will come: from the rising of the sun he will call on my name: and he will come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treads clay. 26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? And beforehand, that we may say, He is righteous? Yes, there is none that shows, yes, there is none that declares, yes, there is none that hears your words. 27 The first will say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good news. 28 For I looked, and there was no man among them, there was no counselor, that, when I asked them, could answer a word. 29 Behold, they are all emptiness; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

 

  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, except by me.

 

 

                                             Isaiah 42

 

The eternal Father upholds His servant, Christ our Lord, and He delights in Him

 

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up or cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 He will not break a bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax: he will bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He will not fail or be discouraged until he has set justice in the earth: and the isles will wait for his law. 5 This is what God the LORD says, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread out the earth, and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to them that walk in it: 6 I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will guard you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations; 7 To open the blind eyes, to release the prisoners from the prison, and those that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

 

  • In a world run by greed, speaking God’s truth places a person in jeopardy.
  • To speak the truth in love forces us to challenge an existing system that is based on self-preservation.
  • Jesus will rule the world according to God’s word.
  • Judgment on earth will finally be perfectly right in every case.
  • Money will not rule when Jesus is king.
  • John 17:17 Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.
  • Luke 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.

 

The Lord will rise up and prevail over evil

 

8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to graven images. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and I declare new things: before they spring forth I tell you of them. 10 Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is in it; the isles, and its inhabitants. 11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. 12 Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands. 13 The LORD will go out as a mighty man, he will stir up jealousy like a man of war: he will cry, yes, roar; he will prevail against his enemies. 14 I have held my peace for a long time; I have been still, and restrained myself: now I will cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

 

  • God’s title LORD means that He controls all things.
  • The universe is astounding, our bodies are astounding and the credit belongs to God and no other.
  • God deserves gratitude for each day and each breath.
  • God’s enemies are those who have chosen to follow evil rather than God.
  • The Lord has been patient a very long time.
  • 2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.

 

15 I will waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they did not know; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things I will do to them, and not forsake them. 17 Those that trust in carved images will be turned back, they will be greatly ashamed, that say to the molten images, You are our gods. 18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant? 20 Seeing many things, but you do not observe; opening the ears, he does not hear.

 

  • Earth is in for a rare treat in the near future—a ruler that truly cares for the people with all His heart.

 

The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify His law and make it honorable

 

21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it/him honorable.

 

  • Someday soon, God’s law will be the rule of the world.
  • All the world will see His great wisdom and compassion.
  • We will see the high and holy rightness of God’s law.
  • Mankind’s sinful nature will be subdued rather than ruling the world, and those who seek the Lord will be transformed into the image of “HIS SON.”

 

22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are a prey, and none delivers; a spoil, and none says, Restore. 23 Who among you will listen to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient to his law. 25 Therefore he has poured on him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.

 

  • God gave His people as plunder because they sinned and were disobedient.
  • Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper.

 

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SUMMARY: Isaiah 39-42

 

  • God has given us an unspeakable gift
  • The LORD comforts His people
  • His glory will be revealed
  • He brings princes of the earth to nothing; He makes judges empty
  • He is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; He gives power to the faint
  • The Lord is the first and the last who He calls forth the generations
  • He holds our right hand saying to us, Do not fear, I will help you
  • He’s going to plant trees in the wilderness and in the desert
  • The eternal Father upholds His servant, Christ our Lord, and He delights in Him
  • The Lord will rise up and prevail over evil
  • The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify His law and make it honorable