The True God Ridicules Idolaters and Raises Up Cyrus (Isaiah Sermon 51)

So the story I’m about to tell you is in no way commending a strategy for discipleship, but I’m just going to tell you something that happened to me, alright? Shortly after I came to faith in Christ, I was discipled very well by a guy at MIT. We met together really almost, I wouldn’t say daily, but every couple of days we got together and he did a phenomenal job, Tim Shuman. And one day in particular though, I’ll never forget this day. We were at the dining hall there on-campus, and it was Friday, and we were meeting together and having a meal. Now, like many Catholics growing up, I abstained from eating meat on Fridays. That put me into an immediate problem because I hate fish. So I was eating grilled cheeses especially during Lent, every Friday. So we were sitting down at the table and he got the usual, a cheeseburger and all that, and fries, and there I was with my grilled cheese, he said, “I thought you like cheeseburgers.” I said, “I love them.” He said, “Why didn’t you get one?” I explained to him that I don’t eat meat on Fridays. This is after I’d come to faith in Christ. He paused, and then he laughed in my face.

He just laughed at me, and he actually had trouble composing himself. It took a while. I’m like, “What?” And he said, “Look, that’s not in the Bible. You’re free to eat whatever you want on Fridays.” And it’s only been in the recent years as I’ve studied church history and found out where all that came from, but that was a superstition, really, that was part of my upbringing, but was no part of the Bible. But what I want to tell you is, there was an impact to that laugh, that mocking laugh. I think it was a mocking laugh. And as we come to Isaiah 44, I think we’re going to hear God, God’s mocking laughter concerning idolatry.

This is a humorous chapter about something that’s actually not funny at all. And God’s laughter is meant to get in our face, and make us realize how ridiculous it is to worship anything but the God of the Bible. How utterly foolish it is to think that we can concoct a god out of our own imagination and then our hands can skillfully shape and craft that god and then we can bow down and worship. The whole thing is ridiculous, and foolish. And yet, how many people do exactly that? We Americans may not struggle with shrines, and statues and altars, but I can assure you, millions of people around the world do precisely the things that are described in this chapter. They shape and craft idols and they bow down and worship them. But we Americans we have our idols too.

And so today what we’re going to do is we’re going to follow the Prophet Isaiah into the workshop of the idol maker, and we’re going to hear from Heaven, the laughter of our Sovereign God concerning all of it, the mocking laughter about idolatry. But we’re not going to stop in the workshop, we’re going to go from the workshop to the hospital, spiritual hospital. And we’re going to have the spiritual physician, Christ, sit down with each of us and tell us what our idols are and how serious they are, and then we’re going to go to the operating room God willing and have them addressed. So that’s the journey that’s in front of us today, in Isaiah 44. John Calvin said, “The human heart is an idol factory.” And we’re going to have a chance today to look at that factory, we’re going to look in our own hearts. And as I’ve said again and again in Isaiah, it is dangerous for us to say, “Oh those sinners out there, how they do that,” etcetera. We are meant to be humbled by this, we’re meant to be convicted by it and we’re meant to be transformed by it.

Now, the idea of idolatry is going to hold this whole chapter together. Isaiah is a challenge because he goes it seems from one topic to the next, to the next. And finding a cohesive theme isn’t always easy to do. But I think in this chapter, it’s pretty easy to see that idolatry really holds the entire chapter together. The chapter begins in verses 1-5 with God’s promise to pour out His spirit and create his children.

Now again, the immediate context of Isaiah the Prophet, 7th century BC, 700 BC. I think by then we can understand that the Assyrian threat was gone, Sennacherib had taken what was left of his army, and after 185,000 of his soldiers had been killed in one night, by the Angel of the Lord, he’s gone, the Assyrian threat is gone, it’s over.

But now, he’s facing the future and the new threat is the idolatry that’s going to come in under Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, and then God’s inevitable judgment on Judah and on Jerusalem for that idolatry. He’s going to bring the Babylonians and the Babylonians are going to come in and they’re going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. They’re going to raze the temple, they’re going to level it, and they are going to kill most of the people in the land and a small remnant of the Jews are going to be brought into exile into Babylon. But then in the providence of God beyond that 70-year exile to Babylon, God is going to raise up an individual whom he names, by name identifies a century and a half before it happens, more than that probably before it happens. Cyrus the Great, identified in this chapter by name as the one who would allow a small remnant of Jews to come back from exile to Babylon and rebuild Judah and Jerusalem, to lay the foundations of the temple. All of this in the future.

And so, the idolatry that would cause this exile is yet in the future, and the remedy to it, yet in the future. And God’s ability to predict the future so specifically sets him apart from the gods, all the counterfeit gods, as Tim Keller calls it, that there are. He’s the only one who can do it. And so, as we look at his prophetic ability, we are going to see that only God can do this.

I. God Promises to Pour Out His Spirit and Create His Children (vs. 1-5)

Now, in verses 1-5, God promises to raise up that remnant of His children to be eventually a large nation who will populate the desolated Judah and Jerusalem. And God is going to do that by His Spirit. So that’s the context here immediately, but I believe there’s a larger context. And that these verses, in verse 1-5, speak also about God’s sovereign ability to pour out His Spirit on Jews and gentiles alike who are dead in their transgressions and sins, and bring them to faith in Christ so that they can be the children of the living God. And God is able by His spirit to raise up eternal children, children of the living God, by his spirit. I think that’s in view as well. So look at verses one and two, God softly calls Jacob to listen to him. He says, “But now, listen O Jacob, my servant. Israel, whom I have chosen, this is what the Lord says, He who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you. Do not be afraid O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun [that means my righteous one] whom I have chosen.”

So he’s calling to His chosen people. And we know that faith comes by hearing, he says, “Listen to me, listen to what I’m saying, he wants you to hear God’s word so that your faith can be strengthened.” Then in verse three the Lord promises to pour out His Spirit on the dusty ground. He says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and I will pour streams on the dry ground, and I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.”

Now, again and again in these 10 chapters of Isaiah 40 to 49, in this we get this image of a dry and thirsty land, a desert land that then suddenly flourishes and buds and blossoms and has rivers of water flowing through it. And I believe that we can take a physical side to that. There is a cursing that’s happened on the earth because of Adam’s sin, because of the Jews sin there was a cursing on the Promised Land and that’s fine. And I believe in the new heaven and the new earth, we will see this world as it was meant to be. And how beautiful will that renewed almost resurrected earth be, the new Heavens and the new Earth.

But in verse three, we have some Hebrew parallelism. You see Hebrew parallelism a lot in the prophets, in the Psalms, in Proverbs where the same thing is said twice in slightly different words so you get an idea they… The verse interprets itself. So Isaiah 44:3 is a very important verse for me that says this streams and the wasteland image really has to do with the spirit of God. It has to do with the spirit’s work on his people. Look what it says, “I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessings on your descendants.” So the idea of the pouring of the spirit, as I’ve mentioned before, the Spirit frequently likened to water. Like rain flowing from… Flowing down from the clouds or springs that you can drink from or rivers. Again, and the verb frequently used with the Spirit is “pour.”

So the Spirit is poured out on us, we get this on the day of Pentecost. Remember when Peter quoting Joel two is explaining what’s happened when the Holy Spirit has come on the church. And they are… They have just streamed out into the streets and he’s trying to explain what’s happening there and he quotes Joel two, in the last days he says, God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” And in verse 21 there, in Acts 2:21, it says, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That’s Acts 2:21. But that image of pouring and when the Spirit is poured down from above, people cry out to God from below up. And we call on the name of the Lord and we are saved.

And so I think not only is God promising to restore a remnant of Jews and populate biologically The Promised Land, so that there will be children running in the streets like Zechariah talks about, there will be people there. Yes, yes, yes. But more than that, that God is going to send forth His Spirit in every generation, and he’s going to raise up children for the living God. And that’s an awesome thing, isn’t it? He’s going to populate the New Jerusalem, he’s going to populate heaven with his spirit and his children are going to spring up. Remember how John the Baptist said that God is able out of these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And we are, are we not the stones that were brought to life? Are we not children of Abraham, who have believed in Jesus?

As it says in John 1:12-13, “As many as did receive Him, [Jesus] to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” And in that same book, in John 3, we find out we’re born of the Spirit. Amen. So the Spirit comes, and He makes us children of the living God and I think that’s what’s going on here in verses 1-5. We are going to be in verse five among those Gentiles who say, “Hey I belong, I’m included. We’ll, we’ll like outdo each other to say how Jewish we are by we’re honorary Jews.”

Look at verse five, “One will say ‘I belong to the Lord.’ Another will call himself by the name of Jacob, still another will write on his hand, the Lord’s, and will take the name Israel.” I think this is talking about outsiders who become spiritually children of Abraham, that’s us. And so God is going to pour out His Spirit and He’s going to raise up children. Now biologically yes, through the remnant and that’s important but the bigger picture has to do with the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

II. God Alone Can Explain the Past and Predict the Future (vs. 6-8)

Now, in verses six through eight, God sets aside some verses to talk about his own greatness because he’s about to address the issue of idolatry and he wants to say that he alone can explain life. He’s the only one that can explain history. Look what he says in verse six, “This is what the Lord says, Israel’s king and redeemer, the Lord Almighty. ‘I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God.'” First and last, that language is that language of the sequence of events. He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of what really? Of all of human history, of redemptive history.

You know, in the beginning, God created heavens and earth. So there’s a beginning. God is the beginning, He is the first and he is the last. And there’s a story unfolding here. He alone understands history, he alone controls history. He says, “I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God. Who then is like me, let him proclaim it, let him declare and lay out before me. What has happened since I established my ancient people in the past and what is yet to come? Yes, let him foretell what will come.” So he’s saying, “Look, you don’t even know the past. You don’t know what’s happened since I established my ancient people, from the very beginning. You don’t even know the sequence of events that’s led to the day you’re at right now.”

Historians will tell you how hard it is to know the past. It’s actually very difficult. Professional historians can spend years and years studying a single event, a battle, Battle of Waterloo or The Battle of Gettysburg or something like that, and understand all the forces that went into it and what actually happened. And even if there’s an eyewitness, he only has a small slice of the truth. Historians talk about the fog of war, and it’s hard to see really what’s going on. So he says, “You don’t even know the past, you don’t know what’s happened up to this point. But now let’s talk about what you definitely don’t know, what you definitely cannot do, O idols, O gods of the nations. Let your idols come in, let your gods come in and let them predict the future, let them do what I’m about to do in this chapter. Let them name some ruler who’s going to come 150 years from now by name and let it happen, let’s see if your god can do something like that.” And so, He’s setting Himself apart as the great God who alone can do these things.

Now, look at verse eight. Here, he identifies his chosen people as his witnesses in this idolatrous world. In this god and goddess soldered world, we are the witnesses of the true God. Look at verse eight, he says, “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other rock. I know not one.” Now, you may ask, “What is he talking about?” At the end of the chapter, He’s going to name Cyrus, by name. We’ve talked about this already for weeks. But this, and the next chapter, these are the two Cyrus chapters in which He is identified by name. Now we’re going to do more with Cyrus God willing, next week. But it’s at the very end that in Isaiah 44:28, he identifies Cyrus, and he says, he is the very one who’s going to say, of the towns of Jew to let them be rebuilt. And of Jerusalem, let it be inhabited. And of the temple, that its foundations be laid. And so he does all of this. This is mind-boggling. He predicts the future and he says he’s going to do this.

Now again, you think about the perspective. By then, there weren’t any threats. People were back in their towns and Judah and Jerusalem was doing well and thriving under Hezekiah and none of these things had even happened, yet. And you’re hearing from Isaiah the Prophet, “Oh, don’t worry, God’s going to allow Judah to be rebuilt. And the cities, the ruin of Jerusalem will be restored and it will be repopulated” and this is the clincher “of the temple, its foundations will be laid and there’ll be a new temple build so don’t worry.” It’s like, “Whoa, wait a minute now, we have a good temple, we have a really good temple. Solomon built us a good temple. What are you saying?” “I’ll tell you what I’m saying, it’s going to be destroyed. It’s going to be destroyed. And the towns of Judah are going to be leveled. And Jerusalem is going to be stripped of all people. But through Cyrus, through this man Cyrus, all of that is going to be reversed and I’m going to re-populate this land.” It’s staggering what God is doing in this chapter, it’s amazing. 100 plus years before Cyrus would have been born, 150, 160 years or more before these things would be fulfilled. That’s what he’s saying, and God alone can do this.

III. God Ridicules Idol-Makers (vs. 9-20)

Now, in verses 9-20, he takes us into the workshop of the idol makers, the idolaters, the idol manufacturers, and he shows us this process by which idols are actually made. Look at verse 9-11, idol makers and idol worshippers alike will be shamed. He says there, “All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind, they are ignorant to their own shame. Who shapes a God, who casts an idol which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame. Craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand, they will be brought down to terror and infamy.” So God here highlights the worthlessness of both the idols and the idolaters. “They’re both worthless,” He says.

Now you may think that is harsh but here’s the thing, there’s a basic principle here at work. You become like what you worship. You become like what you worship. We have an old saying, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Well, the greatest form of flattery there could be, would be worship. And so therefore, it makes perfect sense that what you worship is going to have an effect on who you are, it’s going to shape who you are. Now, for us as Christians, we worship Jesus Christ as God and we are being transformed. We’re being conformed to the image of Christ by that, do you see? We’re being transformed by the Spirit, little by little, made more and more like Christ, we’re being conformed to Christ by worshipping Him. But idolaters gradually become more and more like the idols they worship which means in this text, more and more worthless. More and more worthless. Idols are worthless and if you worship them, you become worthless too.

That’s what the text is saying. And the end result of that downward journey is wrath on the day of judgment, God’s wrath against the idolaters on the day of judgment. He says they will be brought down to terror and infamy, they’ll be stripped and shamed on that day for their idolatry. And so, in Verse 12-17, He ridicules the actual process by which idols are made.

Look at verse 12 and follow me. It says, “The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, ‘Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.’ From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, ‘Save me; you are my god.'”

So, we’re led here into the workshop of the idol maker. The first idol is made out of metal, so it’s a metal worker. You get the picture of this blacksmith in a blacksmith shop, and he’s pounding away on the anvil and heating the thing up and pounding it some more. And he’s sweaty, this man and he’s getting weak as he works, and that’s kind of a big feature here in the ridicule. He gets weaker, and weaker, and maybe he forgets to drink some water. He doesn’t have a lunch, and so he’s getting weaker and weaker as he makes his god. And what a contrast that is from Isaiah 40, where we’re told God never gets weary ever. God’s like a raging fire that can ignite infinite numbers of logs or trees and burn them to ashes and he doesn’t get diminished at all by that, he never gets tired. But here’s this god-maker, and he gets weary in the heat as he goes on, as he’s making this. And at the end of the day, you can see him mopping his brow and feeling satisfied he’s made a good god that can now sell well. It’ll sell. Or he himself, maybe he made it for himself, and he’ll bow down and worship it.

Or then we’re led into the carpenter shop and we’re given some different techniques some different tools, same thing though. He’s working with… He’s a wood worker, skilled craftsman. And it’s funny, I read this once, I don’t remember where it was or even who it was, but it was a famous sculptor and he was asked how he could make such a magnificent sculpture of a horse? And he said, “Well I choose a block of marble and then I carve away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.”

Or it’s like Bach saying, “Music is easy, you just hit the right note at the right time. What’s so hard about that?” But here’s this skilled craftsman and he just carves away everything. Now, here’s the catch. That doesn’t look like a god. What is it that? What do you mean? Oh, so you get an idea in your head first of a god or goddess and you think of it, and then your hands move out and execute your internal vision and thoughts. Do you not see the hubris, the arrogance to that? Scripture tells us that we are shaped and created by God in his image. But now we’ve got an idol maker who’s getting an idea of a god in his mind, and he shapes and makes it. Who’s in control of that process? He is, and he’s making the god. Do you see the wickedness of it and the evil of it?

And so that’s what is going on here. The idol maker then makes this… And he ridicules the whole process. He says, he goes out, maybe he’s got a grove of trees specially designed like you know chosen hardwoods. The hardwoods are harder to work, but they’re going to be worth more money. And so you can make a better god or goddess out of it, sell a little bit better. So he’s an expert at wood. And I love how it says he plants a tree and listen to this “the rain makes it grow.” Do you love that? It’s like, “Yeah, I made that grow,” God’s saying, “I give life to everything.” But he’s blind to that. And so, up comes this tree after some decades it gets big enough, round enough, and he says, “Okay, this is a good one,” and chops it down. And he’s got this log and I picture him having a hard time getting on the ox cart or whatever, rolling it somewhere. It’s too big for the god he has in mind. The god he has in mind about that big, maybe. So I’m like, “How do you decide how big your god should be?” But that’s about it.

“So actually I have some extra wood left over, fine. I’ll make a fire and eat from it and warm myself.”  God is ridiculing all this. And he’s very detailed, he says, “Okay, let’s go back over what we talked about. Remember, half of it he used for the fire, half of it he used to make his bread or roast his meat and warm himself.” And he says, he even says, “I’m warm, I see the fire,” he’s saying. But from the other half, he made a god, which he says bow down… He bows down and says, “Save me, you’re my god.” Absolutely ridiculous. Half for the fire, which he sees and enjoys. Half for a god, which he bows down and trusts. You know what I wonder? Imagine he had a helper who’d come in and clean up the shop and he only got like half-way done carving the thing. And the guy accidentally threw it in the fire, the god in the fire. And he comes in, and he’s like, “No, no!” And he runs and grabs it and beats the fire. He’s like, “That’s my god, he’s burning. Don’t do that.” So what is he really worshipping? What’s the difference between that and the log he did burn? His own skill, his own ingenuity, his own craftsmanship. That’s what he’s worshipping.

And so in verses 18-20, God exposes the mindlessness of idolatry. “They know nothing, they understand nothing, their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see. Their minds closed, so they cannot understand.” You don’t really know who he’s talking about here. Is he talking about the idol or the idolater? Dear friends, he’s talking about both. Don’t you see it? Both the idol and the idolater, they’re the same, they’re blind, they’re dead, they’re motionless, they don’t see anything, they don’t hear anything. Their minds are closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I use for fuel. I even bake bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a de-testable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him.

Now that’s right there in that verse, in verse 20, that’s the key for us Americans. The essence of idolatry is in a deluded heart that misleads us, and we’re going to come back to that at the end of the message. He doesn’t have the ability to save himself. Do you know that? No idolater can save him or herself. They can’t, they’re trapped, they’re in prison. And only Jesus can save them. Only Christ crucified, resurrected can save them. Only the blood of Jesus applied by the sovereign Spirit of God can rescue people and turn idolaters into children of the living God. They can’t save themselves, they are becoming like what they worship.

IV. God Has Swept Away Our Sins Like a Mist, So Rejoice! (vs. 21-23)

Now, in verses 21-23, we have the incredible good news of God sweeping away our sins like a mist so rejoice. Verse 21, “Remember these things O Jacob, for you are my servant. O Israel, I have made you, you are my servant. O Israel, I will not forget you.” So he says, “Look I’m committed to remembering you, I’ll never forget you, would you please remember me? Would you remember who I am? Remember that I am the living God, remember to worship me? Remember these things?” Again, Isiah, at that moment most of the wickedness and the idolatry was yet to come, it hadn’t happened yet. “So as you’re going through it, remember me. And then when you’re in exile, remember me. When you’re trapped in sin, remember me for I will never forget you.”

And in verse 22, he says, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” Oh, friends, what an incredibly gracious God we serve. Amen. He can take our sins, did you see? I thought it was interesting. We had a morning mist this morning. It was kind of out where we were in Bahama, it was kind of swirling around and kind of misty, nasty and all that. And I was like, I was thinking about this exact verse, and I was thinking how it was such a block between us and the sunshine of a bright pleasant day which we had yesterday. And how it’s a picture of how our sins separate us from God. And you can’t get at them, there’s nothing… Suppose you said, “I don’t like this mist, I’m going to get rid of it.” What are you going to do, how are you going to get rid of your morning mist? You cannot do it. And we don’t tend to think of our sins like that, our sins seem massive, like mountain ranges. But to God, through Christ, they’re like a morning mist. And he can burn it off with the bright sunshine, the heat of the glory of Christ at the cross. He can burn off our sins and we are free at last from all of our idolatry.

And so it seems reasonable for us that we should celebrate. Look at verse 23, “Sing for joy O heavens! For the Lord has done this. Shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song you mountains, you forests and all you trees for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory, in Israel.” We should celebrate and not only us, but all of creation is going to celebrate. What is… How is the Earth going to sing when at last, the sons and daughters of the living God are fully revealed in resurrection glory? How beautiful will the new Heaven and new Earth be. And how much will it sing in some mysterious way, under our feet as we walked on it, and we see the beauty of this world, we should yearn for it, it’s going to be magnificent. So all of this is amazing. God’s, cele… We should celebrate God’s ability to take our idolatries and our sins and wickedness and move them away like the morning mist, that we can celebrate his grace and his glory forever.

V. God Raises Up Cyrus to Rebuild Jerusalem (vs. 24-28)

Now, in verses 24-28, we have this section. I’ve already touched on it, I’m not going to do much with it now. Next week, we’ll talk more about Cyrus, but go ahead and look at it briefly. In Verse 24, God says, He alone created all things. “This is what the Lord says, your redeemer who formed you in the womb. ‘I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the Earth by myself.'” So God is the alone creator and He is the alone savior. By the way, this is a great, great verse to parallel with the verses in the New Testament that teach that God created everything through Jesus. “Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made,” John 1:3. Hebrews 1:2 says that God created all things through the Son. Colossians 1 teaches that it was Christ, who created all things. So if you get the fierce monotheism of this verse saying, “I am the only God there is, there is no one like me.” And then Jesus comes in as the co-creator with the Father, you get the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the trinity very plainly from that.

But God says, He’s the only one who creates, the only one who can redeem. And in verse 25-26, He foils false prophecies and fulfills true ones. Who foils the signs of false prophets, who makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and Hosea, and Habakkuk and all of the true prophets, God fulfills what they said but the false prophets go away.

And what is he specifically talking about? Well, Jerusalem shall be inhabited, the towns of Judah, shall be built, the ruins will be restored, he’s going to have the foundation of the temple laid, that’s what he says he’s going to do. Verse 27, “He says of the watery deep, ‘Be dry. And I will dry up your streams,’ who says of Cyrus, ‘he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please.’ He will say of Jerusalem, ‘let it be rebuilt. And of the temple, let its foundations be laid.'”

VI. Applications

Alright, so as we look at this chapter, what applications can we take from this? Well, I want to go immediately now to the issue of idolatry. Now, I’ve been in nations in which the idolatry was open and obvious and visible. I’ve been to India for example, there is no nation that I’ve ever been to in which the gods and goddesses are so plainly on display. But I lived in Japan for two years, same thing, same kind of thing.

So there are nations in which there are actual statues and statuettes and gods and things like that, the people bow down, they actually do bow down and worship. This goes on all over the world. But for us Americans, it’s more the idols of the heart, and no one I think has thought so clearly and so well about idols of the heart as Tim Keller. He wrote a book called “Counterfeit Gods.” He’s a pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City, and wrote a book called “Counterfeit Gods.” I would commend it to you. But you’ve already heard Daniel give this definition, what is an idol? It’s anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I will feel that my life has meaning. Then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” That’s what an idol is. Well, how can you identify it? Sometimes when you have a splinter, have you ever felt that? And you’re trying to find it, you take your fingernail and you drag it, it’s like, “There it is, feel it. It’s right there. I know it’s there,” you can feel it. And so I want you to do that now over the next couple of minutes, I want you to hear some of the things that Keller says and says, “Maybe I have that kind of an idol at work in my life.”

Can I just tell you a big picture? Remember I said we’re going from the workshop to the hospital? We’re in the hospital now, and the physician is going to talk to you about your aches and pains. He’s going to ask you some questions and he’s going to talk to you so he can find out. Now, is there anyone here who isn’t laboring under idolatry? Do you think so? Do you think there’s anybody here that isn’t in some way being pulled by idolatry? I can’t imagine that, I hope you know, this is something we all struggle with, all of us. It says in 1 John 5:21, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” It’s a problem for all of us. So how do I identify it? Well, Keller recommends four ways. First of all, look at your imagination. “The true God of your heart,” he says, “Is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there’s nothing else demanding your attention.”

When your mind’s relaxed, what do you go to? What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What is it that occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement or material goods, like a dream home, or a relationship with a specific person maybe? Now, he says that one or two daydreams doesn’t mean it’s an idol, but it may be indicating some of that.

Secondly, how about your money, how do you spend your money? I think the way the money goes can show what’s got a hold on your heart. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.” Your money flows most effortlessly toward your heart’s greatest love. In fact, the mark of an idol is that you spend too much money on it. So it could be a hobby, it could be vacations, it could be cars, it could be a home, as he said, or home improvement, it could be any one of those things, but just look at how you spend your money.

Thirdly, he says, for the religious, what is it that frustrates you about God? What do you do when your prayers aren’t answered. Frustrated hopes and unanswered prayers can show idols sometimes. Some of you if you don’t get your prayers answered the way you want, you just go on, you trust God with that and you go on, it’s not an idol. It’s something you want, you desire, you’re praying for, but it’s not an idol, but others of you just can’t move on and start to charge God with wrong-doing because he’s not answering your prayer the way you want Him to. Its an indication of an idol, says Tim Keller.

And how about fourthly, your uncontrollable emotions, uncontrollable emotions like anger. Is there something… As you get… If you lose your temper with a family member, a spouse, or with a co-worker, or road rage, or any of that, is there an idol down below that? He would say there probably is. What about feeling strong feelings of fear or despair or guilt? Those feelings can be indicators of idols. And then he gives a list, and this is really helpful. I’m not going to give them all to you, we’re almost out of time. But he has this saying, “Life only has meaning or I only have worth if this is happening for me,” that’s a language of idolatry. For example, life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I have power and influence over other people. I’m in charge, I’m in control. “Well, you have a power idolatry,” he would say. Or life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I’m loved and respected by this person or this group, that’s approval idolatry in that way. Or life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I have this kind of pleasure experience, like your team winning the National Championship. “Don’t touch that kind of thing.” Hey, I’m touching everything. May everything be touched.

Is it possible that some spectator sports in the US is idolatry? Is it even possible that there are 60,000, 70,000 idolaters gathering even this very day, in various places for whom, if their team doesn’t win, they will display extreme negative emotions, thus revealing idolatry? Is it possible there are some Christians there too? Or any other pleasure experience? It could be a trip, again, it could be a lake home, it could be a vacation, it could be any… A pleasure experience, good gift of God, but so addictive you can’t let it go. There are so many, he’s listed 20 of them. I don’t have time, look it up online. Tim Keller, 20 questions to probe idolatry. But it could be an individual, you could be single, struggling, not accepting that maybe there’s an individual, but he or she hasn’t… You haven’t got their eye yet. And it’s like the language of our songs, it’s like, “If I don’t have that person I can’t live, I can’t go on living if I don’t have that person.” You might even be married to that individual or they might be your son or daughter, they might be someone in your family. But, “If I lost my children, I couldn’t go on living.” That language is the language of idolatry.

I think in general, if you’re a Christian and you are characterized by irritability or anger, or frustration, or fear, or depression, there’s got to be idolatry at the heart of it, something is amiss. Christ crucified and resurrected is not enough for you. And this is a question I’ve asked my kids for years and myself, “Is Christ crucified and resurrected enough for you to be joyful today, no matter what happens?” Should be.

Alright, so we’ve been to the hospital, we’ve been diagnosed. Is there a cure? Yes, there is a cure. Is there a balm in Gilead? Yes, there is. The cross of Christ is the only remedy there is to idolatry. We can’t save ourselves. Did you see that right in the text? He cannot save himself. We can’t save ourselves, go to Christ crucified and resurrected. Trust in Jesus, and if you’re a Christian, you have idolatries identified, take them to the cross, so he can kill them by the Spirit. Don’t just accept these idols, don’t just accept idolatry, let God by His Grace put it to death in your life, close with me in prayer.

There are many different kinds of laughter… there is the laughter of joy at the birth of a healthy new baby; the laughter of children playing a fun game; the laughter that comes when a funny person tells a humorous story or joke; the laughter of amazement when we see a miracle or something that brings us surprising joy…or the laughter of peace and celebration when we finally make it to the New Jerusalem and all our troubles are behind us:

Psalm 126:1-2 When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. 2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.

Luke 6:21 Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

But in the Bible, the laughter of God is always reserved for his arrogant foes who think they can take on this awesome God and defeat him!

Psalm 2:2-5 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. 3 “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.” 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath

Psalm 37:12-13 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; 13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

Psalm 59:8  But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you scoff at all those nations.

In Isaiah 44. We hear God’s mocking laughter at those who make idols out of a block of wood…

It is biting satire, depicting a man searching through the forest for the ideal piece of wood… he finds it, cuts it in half and uses half of it to cook his dinner, and the other half to make an idol which he bows down and worships

God’s laughter is meant to jar idolaters out of their insane foolishness so they can bow down to the living God…

I.   God Promises to Pour Out His Spirit and Create His Children (vs. 1-5)

Immediate context: God is able to rebuild the depleted nation of the Jews… many died at the time of the exile to Babylon, by the sword or famine or plague

Just a small number, a tiny remnant, God preserved and allowed to go into exile; the rest were slaughtered

The concern: how can God rebuild the nation after the Exile? Where will all the children come from?

Answer: God is able to raise up from nothing a new nation; more than that, He is able to give them strength to flourish

HOW? By the power of his Holy Spirit! But that is only the immediate context

The larger picture: God is able to bring to life people dead in their transgressions and sins… to bring them to Christ… to make them children of God… again we may ask, “HOW?” The answer comes from this section of the chapter: by God’s Spirit

A.  The Lord Softly Calls Jacob to Listen (vs. 1-2)

Isaiah 44:1-2 “But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what the LORD says– he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

1.      Faith comes by hearing; so in order to rescue his people’s hearts from idolatry, he must speak his words into their hearts

2.      God summons His people by multiple names: Jacob, my servant, Israel, Jeshurun (“my righteous one”)

3.      He reminds them TWICE that he has chosen them

4.      Beyond that, he formed them in the womb… that is true of every human baby that was ever born… but God’s children especially should be mindful of it

5.      He also promises to HELP them in their trials

B.  The Lord Promises to Pour Out His Spirit on the Dusty Ground (vs. 3)

Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

1.      This language God uses again and again in this section: streams of water in a dry and thirsty land

2.      Here in verse 3, in Hebrew parallelism, we are openly told what this means: it is not so much a physical promise of water in the desert, although it certainly does mean that ultimately: God is able to take this cursed earth and make it bud and flourish

3.      But what is really going on is the POURING OUT OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT on the hearts of his children

4.      It is amazing how often God uses liquid imagery for the working of the Holy Spirit: God pours out His Spirit like water, like rain, like a river

5.      This is ultimately fulfilled in the New Covenant gift of the outpoured and indwelling Holy Spirit:

Acts 2:17-21 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

C.  The Result: God Raises Up His Children Out of the Dust (vs. 4-5)

Isaiah 44:4-5 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.

1.      Here the children of Israel are likened to grass springing up in a meadow, poplar trees by a flowing stream

2.      Remember how God made Adam from the DUST OF THE EARTH

3.      Remember what John the Baptist said to Pharisees and Sadducees who were so proud of being Jews

Matthew 3:9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

4.      This refers not merely to biological reproduction of Jewish babies while their parents were in exile in Babylon, or in the decades that followed; more significantly it refers to this:

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive [Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

5.      This verse refers to the vast growth of the family of God by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit!!

6.      And the blessings of a NEW NATURE by the power of the Holy Spirit:

Ezekiel 36:26-28 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. Then you will live in the land that I gave your fathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

7.      Verse 5: The result of this will be Gentiles who will seek to outdo each other in expressing their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.

II.   God Alone Can Explain the Past and Predict the Future (vs. 6-8)

A.  The Lord Alone is the First and the Last (vs. 6)

Isaiah 44:6 “This is what the LORD says– Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

1.      Many titles for God: King, Redeemer, Lord Almighty…

2.      A powerful exclusive claim: Only God controls the flow of history… he is the FIRST and the LAST… there is no other God

B.  No One is Like God (vs. 6-7)

Isaiah 44:6-7 “This is what the LORD says– Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come– yes, let him foretell what will come.

1.      You cannot compare ANYONE or ANY GOD to this true God… no one is like Him; the gap between God the Creator and all the Creation is INFINITE!!

2.      Here God again challenges the idols of their hearts and minds… another TRIAL, or a TEST: whoever thinks he is LIKE ME, let him lay out BOTH past and future

3.      First, the past: want has happened since I established my ancient people

4.      He challenges the idols to recount in careful order (the Hebrew verb means to lay out in careful rows or stacks) what has happened from the time that he established “an ancient people”

5.      History is extremely difficult to recount… people may think they know what happened, but they have only part of the story and their perspective is flawed

6.      Historians know how difficult it can be to get an accurate account of what really happened in some great battle; the FOG OF WAR makes it very uncertain who did what when

7.      The idols cannot recount all the steps that have gone into shaping and molding the people of God since God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees

8.      But then God goes beyond the past to the FUTURE:

C.  God’s Challenge to the Idols: Explain the Past and Predict the Future (vs. 7)

Isaiah 44:7 Who, like me, can announce the future? Let him say so and make a case before me, since I have established an ancient people. Let these gods declare the coming things, and what will take place.

1.      We have already noted that the ability to predict the future belongs to God and God alone!

2.      So when God challenges the idols to do this, he knows they cannot!

D.  We Are Witnesses: God Has Predicted the Future (vs. 8)

Isaiah 44:8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

James 4:14 says “You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring.” But in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1, God stunningly names Cyrus as the man who will set his exiles free, rebuild the towns of Judah, rebuild Jerusalem, and lay the foundation of the new temple. This is mind boggling, because Cyrus would not be born until sometime between 600 and 580 B.C., at least a century later! Did his parents really have free will in naming their son? Did they get a sudden prompting from a “still small voice” that Cyrus would be a good name? As Proverbs 16:1 says, “The reflections of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” God named that baby, and then raised him up to astonishing power, as we shall see in the next chapter.

But God alone can do this. We are locked in time, unable to know for certain if we will even be alive tomorrow. Events of history continually stun us. But nothing stuns God! So we should not fear anything (vs. 8), because God has predicted everything we need to know about the future, and it will certainly come to pass. The Jews of Isaiah’s day could already witness to many fulfilled prophecies (like the slavery of Abraham’s descendants for 400 years in Genesis 15:13). We 21st century Christians are God’s witnesses to even more: like the Cyrus predictions of these verses, and even more significantly, the prediction of the substituionary death of Christ in Isaiah 53). There is no other Rock than this God!

III.   God Ridicules Idol-Makers (vs. 9-20)

A.  Idol-Makers and Idol-Worshippers Will Be Shamed (vs. 9-11)

Isaiah 44:9-11 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

1.      God highlights the utter WORTHLESSNESS of BOTH idols and idolaters

2.      A basic principle: you become like what you worship

3.      Old saying: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery;

4.      More profound is WORSHIP: what we passionately worship we eventually imitate in the extreme, we imitate

5.      Christians are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29)… gradually made more and more like Christ

6.      But idolaters gradually become more and more worthless as they worship worthless idols

7.      God says they are BLIND like the idols themselves

8.      He also says they can PROFIT HIM NOTHING… the idol can do nothing to help those who worship it

9.      The end result: WRATH on the Day of Judgment… they will be ASHAMED of what they have worshiped and terrified by the wrath of God

B.  God Ridicules Idol-Makers (vs. 12-17)

Isaiah 44:12-17 The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.”

1.      In verses 12-17, God escorts us into the workshop of an idol-maker. The first idol he makes is constructed of iron, the second of wood. But it doesn’t matter what the material, the process itself is ridiculous. The ironworker has to labor over hot coals to make his metal god. Sweat pours from his face and, if he forgets to drink water or eat, he grows steadily weaker. How different is our God, who as the Creator of the ends of the earth never grows faint or weary (Isaiah 40:28). Nothing God does ever wears him out. God is a consuming fire that can light limitless logs without diminishing his strength. But this ironworker sits at the end of a hard day of heating iron to a glowing yellow and pounding it on an anvil. He mops his brow and feels satisfied. He has made a god worthy of worship!

2.      So also the carpenter does the same work, but in a different medium. He measures with a line and marks it out with a compass. He shapes it with a chisel. Like the famous sculptor once said when asked how he made a magnificent statue of a horse: “I choose a block of marble, then cut away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.” So it is with the idol-maker, and herein is the offense: he has an idea of the god in his mind first (he conceptualizes a god by what he sees with his eyes), then shapes the wood accordingly, cutting away everything that doesn’t look like the god. But we must see the arrogance in this, the damnable hubris. We the created have turned unfulfilled away from our glorious Creator, and take his place, shaping a god out of our own imaginations. So the woodworker proceeds, shaping the idol in the form of human likeness. Frankly, all idolatry in the end is just self- worship. So the idol-makers shapes a man to worship.

3.      The satire goes beyond this, for the idol-maker goes out into the forest to cut down cedars, cypress, or perhaps an oak. The harder the wood, the more money he’ll charge when he sells it. In order to have a lasting supply, he plants a grove of trees (and note that the rain made it grow! God’s activity cannot be avoided.) He chops down a likely tree for the idol, but he doesn’t need the whole piece. So he cuts it in half; half he uses for a fire on which he can make his dinner—roasting his meat, which he eats and is satisfied. But the other half he uses to make a god, before which he bows down and says, “Save me, for you are my god.” God is very detailed in describing the process, slowing down and repeating it: “half for the fire, which he sees and enjoys; half for a god, which he bows down and trusts.” Absolutely ridiculous! Imagine if someone inadvertently threw the “god” in the fire when cleaning up the next morning; he would cry “Blasphemy!” and be enraged. What he is really worshiping is his own artistry, his own craftsmanship, his own idea of an invisible god. He controls the god because he shaped it.

C.  God Exposes the Mindlessness of Idolatry (vs. 18-20)

Isaiah 44:18-20 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

1.      God zeroes in on the tragic MINDLESSNESS of idolatry… how foolish it is

2.      Again, we become like what we worship

Psalm 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.

3.      Here, God says the idolater becomes as mindless as the idol he made: wooden-headed, blind, dead, motionless… unable to discern the truth

4.      He should STOP and THINK about all this! How can it be that HALF OF IT I used to cook my dinner; HALF OF IT I now worship

5.      He should understand that the idol he has in his RIGHT HAND is a lie

6.      It cannot save him; and he cannot save himself from his idolatry!

IV.   God Has Swept Away Our Sins Like a Mist, So Rejoice! (vs. 21-23)

A.  God Calls Israel to Remember (vs. 21)

Isaiah 44:21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.

1.      God calls through all of this to Israel to REMEMBER the true and living God; and to REMEMBER the lessons they’ve already had many times about the futility of idolatry

2.      All of this was written decades before the idolatry under Manasseh (Hezekiah’s son) would necessitate their exile to Babylon

3.      God has called them to remember, specifically because he has promised he would NEVER FORGET his people!

B.  God Sweeps Away Our Sins Like a Mist (vs. 22)

Isaiah 44:22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

1.      What an incredibly gracious God we serve

2.      God is willing to forgive amazingly heinous sins by His people… to sweep those sins away like the morning mist, like they never happened

Micah 7:19 you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

3.      This can only be done through the redemption worked by Jesus Christ… by His blood atonement!

Romans 3:23-25 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. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

4.      God has promised to sweep all our offenses away by the cleansing blood of Christ

5.      On the basis of this, he calls on his people to RETURN TO HIM

6.      The Jews after the Exile would heed this call and return to Jerusalem to resume their religious life in the Old Covenant

7.      We are called on again and again to return to God after we’ve sinned

C.  All Creation Rejoices in the Redemption of God’s Children (vs. 23)

Isaiah 44:23 Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.

1.      The effects of God’s amazing redemption go as far as the physical creation as well

2.      God calls on the earth beneath our feet to shout and the mountains and trees to break forth into song

3.      Remember the strong link between human sin and the cursing of the earth:

Genesis 3:17-18 “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you

Romans 8:19-22 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

4.      In Christ the curse on the earth will ultimately be removed

5.      The future world, the New Heavens and New Earth will be perfectly blessed, free forever from the effects of Adam’s sin

V.   God Raises Up Cyrus to Rebuild Jerusalem (vs. 24-28)

A.  God Alone Created All Things (vs. 24)

Isaiah 44:24 “This is what the LORD says– your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

1.      Again, God identifies himself as Redeemer AND Creator

2.      He stresses plainly that he ALONE made all things

3.      Again, this is plain evidence when combined with the New Testament of the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity

Hebrews 1:2 by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

Colossians 1:15-16 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

John 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

B.  God Foils False Prophecies and Fulfills True Ones (vs. 25-26)

Isaiah 44:25-26 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’

1.      God makes certain that the words of the false prophets are exposed as the lies they are

2.      God exposes the “expert predictions” for the nonsense they are… he overthrows the learning of the wise

3.      BUT he carries out the words of His true messengers!

4.      Samuel:

1 Samuel 3:19 The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.

5.      So also Isaiah!! God let none of Isaiah’s words fall to the ground

6.      The clear prophecy: Jerusalem shall be inhabited

7.      Judah’s towns shall be rebuilt

8.      Amazing in that Judah and Jerusalem were completely destroyed; Jeremiah, the final prophet during the destruction of Jerusalem, saw what had happened in the end:

Lamentations 1:1 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!

Now God is predicting the time when the city will be rebuilt… and eventually totally repopulated!!

C.  God Commands Cyrus to Rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple (vs. 27-28)

Isaiah 44:27-28 who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ‘

1.      Here is one of the most astonishing prophecies in the Bible!

2.      Before the city of Jerusalem was even destroyed, Isaiah was predicting how and by whom it would be rebuilt! Before the temple was even destroyed, something the Jews said could never happen, Isaiah was predicting how and by whom its foundations would be laid!!

3.      Probably 125-160 years before Cyrus was even born!!

4.      God actually goes so far as to call him his “Shepherd” to accomplish all he pleases concerning Jerusalem

5.      God flexes his prophetic muscles here and establishes his clear claim to infinite superiority over the idols! They can do nothing… God can accurately predict the future and make it come to pass!

6.      WHY? Why was it eternally important for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and its temple reestablished?

So that Jesus Christ could be born in the Promised Land, a clear “Son of Abraham” and “Son of David” (Matthew 1:1) in fulfillment of the prophecies made that through their offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed. So that salvation could come from the Jews. (John 4:22) That’s why.

VI.   Applications

A.  Come to Christ!! He sweeps away our sins like the morning mist (vs. 22)!!

Finally, let us never stop marveling at the grace of God in Christ, his power in sweeping away our sins like the morning mist. We should give him thanks day after day; we should bask in the richness of his forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus. We should feel forgiven, and extend that forgiveness to others. And we should look ahead to the delight of seeing Christ face to face and worshiping him for what he’s done!

B.  Understand the power of the Holy Spirit to cause the children of God to spring up out of nothing (vs. 3-4) Pray that God would do this to lost people in Durham and to the ends of the earth! Thank Him that He did it for you!!

We should have our hearts captivated by what’s truly going on in the world—the building of the family of God by the sovereign Spirit. The Spirit of God is able to raise from stones and from the dust of the earth children of God by the power of the gospel. We should be living for this, delighting in it, realizing that it is the story of the world.

C.  Laugh with God at the folly of idolatry! God is openly mocking it throughout this chapter… LAUGH… but also be aware of your own tendency toward foolish idolatry

This chapter has echoed with the laughter of God throughout the centuries, the healthy mocking of foolish idolatry. Like all of God’s actions through the prophets, this also has the redemption of God’s elect in mind. We should take very seriously the threat of idolatry in our lives, and the utter folly of living for material wealth, or earthly pleasure, or career ambitions, or the praise of human beings. We should be aware of the lure of these things—of the “ultimate driving machine” (BMW), or a Patek Philippe wristwatch, or a penthouse condo in Manhattan, or being on the cover of Forbes. Most of us will never achieve any of them, but the desire for something like them is enough. Closer to home is just the “shopping therapy” of a trip to the Mall or even to Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Idolatry sneaks into our hearts and teaches us to set our hearts on things that can never satisfy. A block of wood can never answer prayer—we know that. But do we know that a 10% raise won’t satisfy the longings of our hearts?

D.  Marvel again at God’s perfect knowledge of PAST and FUTURE

1.      Perhaps you’ve never thought about how difficult the past is to know perfectly

2.      Think about how long a court trial goes on seeking to establish a creditable account of what happened so the jury could make a wise and informed decision… think of how historians contradict each other on aspects of the Battle of Waterloo or what led up to WWI… If the past is so difficult for us to know, how impossible is the future

3.      Marvel at verses 24-28! The Cyrus prophecy is ASTONISHING… marvel also that God destroyed the temple (though he wanted it built by Solomon)… see the damage of idolatry that led to the destruction of the temple… but God wanted the temple rebuilt as well

4.      All of this points to the work of Christ on the cross!! The temple and all the animal sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ… trust in Him!!

We should also marvel again and again at God’s supernatural ability to predict the future through his servants, the prophets. We cannot praise him enough for this astonishing Cyrus prophecy. We should probe the depths of the decree of God, marveling that God knew what his parents would name him before their parents named them! The past is foggy to us, the future is completely shrouded. But both are alike illuminated before the eyes of our eternal God. Let us trust in him completely, and worship the God who is the first and the last, the beginning and the end.