Chapter 54
V 1-8 “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;
Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;
For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous
Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent;
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not;
Lengthen your cords
And strengthen your pegs.
3 “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.
And your descendants will possess nations
And will resettle the desolate cities.
4 “Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;
And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
But you will forget the shame of your youth,
And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
5 “For your husband is your Maker,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who is called the God of all the earth.
6 “For the Lord has called you,
Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”
Says your God.
7 “For a brief moment I forsook you,
But with great compassion I will gather you.
8 “In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,”
Says the Lord your Redeemer.
If you or I spoke to someone in the church and said, “ sing oh barren one…”, oh my goodness, we could be accused of being insensitive or even cruel. But God is making a point in the way he addresses Israel. In the Bible times if you were unable to have children, you were viewed as having been cursed by God. In other words, what did you do wrong to deserve this punishment from God that you couldn’t have children? We know that is not God‘s heart, but that’s how they viewed it back then.
Here is why God addressed them that way, in a sense they hadn’t produced or been fruitful in the way God wanted them to be. God‘s intention was that Israel would’ve been a light to the nations. To us the church, we are meant to be the salt of the Earth and a light to the world. Israel was meant to be a light to the nations Isaiah 42:6, and 49:6. To a great extent, though Israel failed in that mission. We can have a tendency to be hard on and bitter toward the Jews and the nation of Israel, but I believe that attitude is satanic. Ethnic Israel doesn’t get a pass because of their ethnicity, they need Jesus as their Messiah and their savior just like everyone else, but they certainly don’t deserve to be singled out for disrespect or hate.
In verses four and five, God consoles them and says he will be to them as a husband and he will be there redeemer. So he will fulfill to them everything he has ever promised. Comparing and contrasting Israel and the church, God said he would be a husband to Israel, and Jesus says we the church are the bride of Christ. One application of these scriptures is for women who have lost a husband to death or have been abandoned by their husband. You can receive consolation in the Lord. You can be comforted by the Lord and the Lord can fill up what is lacking in your life. The ultimate fulfillment of this will be in the millennium when Israel en mass will be drawn to the Lord and rescued through the tribulation.
V9-10 “For this is like the days of Noah to Me,
When I swore that the waters of Noah
Would not flood the earth again;
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
Nor will I rebuke you.
10 “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,
But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,
And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,”
Says the Lord who has compassion on you.
God is saying, “ like I promised Noah never again to judge the entire earth with a flood, so I promise not to be angry forever with you”. God’s anger with the nation of Israel will only be temporary. God promises and he cannot lie that he will again deal tenderly and merciful with Israel his kindness will be everlasting, and his forgiveness will be eternal. But we don’t see that yet that will be in the millennium, but we the church get the benefit of God‘s tenderness and mercy and kindness right now through our savior Jesus.
I know most of you already know this, but it bears repeating, when I use the term church, the word for church in Greek is ecclesia. Literally that word means “the called out ones”. We are called out of the world and called into the church. This word ecclesia is also the same root word from which we get our word eclectic. God is building a collection of people who he calls out of the world to be in his kingdom, called the church. In the millennium, he will call out the Jewish people from the 12 tribes of Israel to be in his kingdom.
V11-15. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
12 “Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
13 “All your sons will be taught of the Lord;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
14 “In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.
15 “If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me.
Whoever assails you will fall because of you.
Here we see a beautiful picture of eternity, heaven and paradise in all these colored stones. One could probably make much of each color and what it might represent and what it might be intended to remind us of. For example, Sapphire is blue as is the sky, which is meant to direct our attention skyward Colossians 3:2 says, set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. And Rubys being red are meant to remind us of the blood stained cross. The blood that Christ shed for our sins.
V16-17 “Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals
And brings out a weapon for its work;
And I have created the destroyer to ruin.
17 “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.
I was talking with someone the other day and describing my approach for studying the Bible and how that has changed. In the past, I would just try and read as much as I could and cover as much ground as I could in the Bible whether or not I understood it. Now what I do is, I read some and then I push away from my desk and think about what I’ve read. In the case of these particular verses, I was thinking and wondering why God chose to bring in the imagery of a blacksmith. In this case, the blacksmith builds a weapon for a particular purpose. God also creates a destroyer to destroy. Any questions? Yeah, lots of them. Remember, we are in general talking about the millennium and prior to the millennium is the tribulation. That is a time when God pours out his wrath and his fury and indignation and judgment on an unbelieving world while bringing Israel safely through it. And then at the end, he casts the devil into the lake of fire forever so prior to and at the end of the millennium there is a lot of destruction and a lot of pressure. Heat and pressure is what a blacksmith uses to forge hot metal.
But I think verse 17 says it all, this is a verse. I believe we as Christians should keep in our back pockets. Whether or not you know it, and whether or not you believe it, we are being attacked from all directions. We have enemies on all sides. Enemies that would do us violence. Enemies that seek our harm. Even though many times those enemies come to us in the form of flesh and blood people, the source of that enmity is spiritual. The battle is spiritual, and our response and our tactics ought to be spiritual. If you feel like you are in the midst of a particularly fierce spiritual battle right now, please raise your hand. I want us to pray for you as a congregation right now. I wanna call in the Air Force so to speak. I wanna bring in a surgical strike against the enemy right now. Matthew 16:18-23 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” 20 Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Chapter 55
V1-5 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
3 “Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
4 “Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
A leader and commander for the peoples.
5 “Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which knows you not will run to you,
Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
When God says here through Isaiah “Ho”, he certainly isn’t saying ho ho ho like Santa Claus. This is very close to being a transliteration of what Isaiah actually wrote in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word here is Oyee. God is setting the tone of what he’s going to be telling Israel. He is going to admonish Israel and at the same time he is sorrowful about what he has to say to them. It’s kind of like saying why don’t you come to the waters you who are thirsty?? The waters of life, the washing of the water by the word. They are free and they are freely available. They are refreshing and fulfilling and oh did I mention they’re free. And yet you guys go off and pay good money for that which does not satisfy in fact you’re spending big dollars on something that is literally poison.
Don’t we do that same thing?
Matthew 6:19-21 (NASB95) 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
V5 is fulfilled right here at Calvary Chapel lake Stevens. Confirmed in Ephesians 2:11-12 (NASB95) 11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands-- 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Finally also in v5 the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel he has glorified you is speaking of God, the father magnifying and glorifying the son. John 17:1-5 (NASB95) 1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
V6-7 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
verse 6 is a very sobering verse. The word while implies there is a time in every person’s life where God makes himself accessible to us. If we don’t take advantage of that time, then what? Verse 7 is God‘s call to mankind throughout all of history. It is the call to repentance. One aspect of repentance is to forsake our wicked ways. We aren’t saved by repentance. We are saved by God‘s grace through faith, but repentance is turning towards God and recognizing our need for him as our savior.
V8-13 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
12 “For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 “Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,
And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,
And it will be a memorial to the Lord,
For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
God does not operate the way we do. In fact, that’s why we need to study the scriptures to learn about God, because what we expect might not be the way he really is. He is the creator, the great engineer of everything there is. There is purpose and design to all of creation. The amazing and wonderful thing of it is that God created this earth and all of its systems for us or he created us for it.
When God speaks a word, there is power in his word. We can trust in his word and we can trust in his promises. In the Lord, we can have joy and we have peace. I know for myself when I entrusted my life to the Lord I definitely felt joy like I had never felt before. The only regret I had is that I didn’t come to the Lord sooner. When I committed my life to the Lord, everything was different; colors were more vibrant, emotions were more emotional, life was more abundant. I no longer had the curse of sin and death hanging over my head.
Chapter 56
V1-2. Thus says the Lord,
“Preserve justice and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come
And My righteousness to be revealed.
2 “How blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who takes hold of it;
Who keeps from profaning the sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
This section is a continuation of the thought that salvation was not only for Israel, but meant for the whole world. I like that it says “preserve”, or “keep” justice and “do” righteousness. Keep it, hold on to it. Do or perform righteousness. This is in a national sense, but it applies to each one of us personally. Isaiah is heralding God’s salvation that is about to come and God’s righteousness that is about to be revealed. About to be is a relative term. From Isaiah to Jesus was around 700 years. That’s not even a day in the Lords timeframe.
How do we keep from defining the Sabbath? First of all recognize that Jesus fulfilled the law, including the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy for us. Also remember every day is the same for Christian. Yes, we do attend church on Sunday. That is not the Sabbath that’s called the Lord’s day.
Colossians 2:16-17 (NASB95) 16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Hebrews 4:1-11 (NASB95) 1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; 5 and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
So consider this; we enter into rest from works and we cease from being subject to judgment by the law because Jesus fulfilled the law for us and we rest in him.
V3-8 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord,
“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
6 “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath
And holds fast My covenant;
7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
8 The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares,
“Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”
people who were explicitly excluded from the worship of God, specifically the temple worship would have an opportunity to draw near to the Lord through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Foreigners could only go into the fore-court known as the court of the gentiles.
If there is something that is keeping you from drawing near to the Lord, if there is some condition that you have or some weakness that you experience that would cause you to feel a separation from the Lord, may that barrier be broken down. How is it broken by faith by trust by repentance by seeking the Lord with your whole heart by being open to him, revealing things to you and relieving you of burdens of sin of shame and of guilt. It is a true statement that Jesus paid it all. There is nothing left for you to do but rest in what God did for us on the cross.
I would like to exhort us out of verse seven see where it says “ my house shall be called the House of prayer for all nations”. I want to urge us all to seek opportunities to pray for one another. Look for legitimate opportunities; don’t make things up. And it’s not meant to be a show. It’s not meant to be one upmanship. And may our prayers not be a way that we preach to one another.
V9-12 All you beasts of the field,
All you beasts in the forest,
Come to eat.
10 His watchmen are blind,
All of them know nothing.
All of them are mute dogs unable to bark,
Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber;
11 And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied.
And they are shepherds who have no understanding;
They have all turned to their own way,
Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.
12 “Come,” they say, “let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink;
And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.”
we end this chapter on somewhat of a down note. He insults the watchmen of Israel. He calls them mute dogs. A mute dog is not only just a poor watchdog, but he’s also a drain since you have to feed him and clean-up after him.
Someone who is filled with intoxicating drink is definitely not gonna be aware of dangers ahead. Let’s cultivate an environment around here where we watch out for each other in a caring and nurturing way.
