Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Wednesday October 28, 2009

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Isaiah 45  p2

Isaiah is writing to convince Israel to walk w/ God.  They have walked so far away from God that they no longer looked like the people of God. Judges 2:8-14 - see how quickly Israel turned from God.  You can also see it in the wilderness – golden calf/return to Egypt…  They longed for security more than anything else.   

It wasn’t love for Baal/Ashtaroth that turned their hearts, but fear /insecurity.  They believed that B/A would give them what Yahweh couldn’t/wouldn’t.  They were surrounded by a Baal culture/began to get saturated w/ a Baal culture.  President Obama said that we are no longer a Christian nation.  Maybe that can be debated.  But I don’t think it can be debated that the dominant culture is not a Christian culture/and this culture has saturated the church.

All this is to say that the spiritual/cultural dynamics of Isaiah’s time parallels our day.  The spiritual dynamics he encountered are the same that we are encountering today.  Power of money/pleasure/ fame autonomy/addiction – 2B secure or to numb from insecurity.  What does the Lord say?

1 God chose Cyrus the Persian king/anointed him/gave him a task/empowered him for that task.  This is the pattern we see through Scripture, when the Lord calls you to do something, He will equip/strengthen you.  We do live in a culture that will sweep you away if you let it.  But you also serve a God who will blow you away if you let Him.  Get soaked w/ God!   

God/culture work differently.  Culture: you need things/people to feel secure.  Bible: you need God for long term, satisfying security.  Things and people come and go.  God remains.  Isaiah is writing to convince the people that their security is in God.   

Cyrus called to conquer Babylon.  The events surrounding this are given to us in Daniel 5:25-30 Darius was uncle of Cyrus/shared a co-regency.  

2-3b  Cyrus was in charge of taking the city of Babylon, which was a daunting task. The walls of B were 180 feet high/60 feet wide/6 chariots could be driven, side by side/15 miles on each side. The Euphrates ran through the center of the city/along the banks of the river were great walls.  When the major boulevards that passed through the city came to the river, ferries that would take them across to the gates on the other side. The walls had gates of brass at every major boulevard. In the center of the city was a bridge over the river connecting both sides of the city. The city was considered impregnable. There was no type of weapon that could assault the walls. Cyrus diverted the Euphrates and entered the city – on the same night as Belshazzar’s feast was unfolding

Belshazzar thought he was so secure in his palace surrounded by gorgeous things/adoring people.  But right under his nose his destruction was coming upon him.  Things/people will be taken away from you and if you don’t know God, you’ll be utterly empty.  Rich man in NT built big barns and thought he had many years to come – he was secure.  He didn’t know what was coming in the back door.  No matter how secure you make the front door of your life, the back door is always unlocked.   

4-7  Yahweh providentially oversees His creation.  Providence: God's preserving and governing all things by means of second causes.  The doctrine of  providence is meant to give us security.  The people can understand idolatry, but not providence – the unseen hand of God.  This is one way God/culture work differently – one is immediate/seen, the other is slower/unseen.  The doctrine of providence says that God has the key to your back door.

The Lord has given Cyrus an assignment, and He gives the reason for it.  What God does for you is that He might do it through you.  God impacts you that He might impact others through you.

3c  In order that you may know

4  For the sake of Jacob My servant and Israel My chosen one

6  That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sin

Whatever it is you do, UR2 do it for the Lord and so that the Lord can be seen in/from your life.  The taking of Babylon was just a backdrop for the Lord’s glory 2B seen.  Prism - used to break light up into its constituent spectral colors.  You don’t see the light entering the prism, you only see it exiting in a display of colors.   

8  Nature responds to its Creator - but not so humankind.

9-10  Reaction of Israel  They are seeking to counsel God.  “Why are you using Him?  Do you know what You’re doing?”  Can you imagine putting flowers in a vase and then hearing a voice from your cupboard, “What are you doing?  That vase was used by your kids as a fish tank and 3 goldfish dies in there.  Use me.”?  You can put your flowers in whatever container you desire.

Don’t ask – “What are You doing?”  Ask – “How do I fit into Your plan?”  Their narrowness of vision prevented them from seeing God’s wider provision for them.  They had a distinct understanding of how God would deliver His people.  But even as the clay is to submit to the potter, so you and me to God.  Your security is in being in the hand of God, not in understanding the hand of God.  Getting massage by Chinese man in L.A. – I hurt for weeks…

            11-12  You asked Me about your future welfare/destiny of the

            nations – you wanted to know – just relax and let Me do My thing.  

            God uses secular instruments/processes to fulfill His purposes.   

I don’t know if Joseph asked, but God showed him what was to come concerning the sons of Israel.  Joe just needed to relax and let the Lord do His work.  As his life unfolded before him, it seemed as if what God showed him was moving further/further away from becoming a reality.  For years, it seemed as if he was moving in the wrong direction.  Then, in the course of one morning, it all came true!  What seemed like the wrong direction brought him to the right location.  It may seem like what God has promised you is moving further out to sea, but God can reverse the tide in a moment.

13  According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, when Cyrus took the city of Babylon, the Jews brought to him the scroll of Isaiah, and they said, “Look, your name is in our book. Our prophet Isaiah wrote these things 175 years ago, and he’s named you!”  He was so astounded and amazed that God would call him by name, he became convinced of the fact that it was indeed God, and he then made the proclamation.  

14-15  Cf. 43:3-4  God’s reward to Cyrus for the release of the Jews is the bondage of these other nations.  That God works so profoundly in the lives of foreign kings makes Isaiah exclaim that God is a God who hides Himself.   

16  Idols revealed to be empty    

17  Israel saved by the Lord, not Cyrus or idols

18-19  God created the world to be inhabited by people and brought forth Israel to be inhabited by Him.   

God is Creator and Revelator.  Though God is a God who hides Himself He is also a God who declares Himself in His word.  His word is clear and abundant and upright.  Though you may not understand the work of God, you can understand the word of God.

Idols are empty.  The way to not allow yourself to be saturated by the culture is to soak in God’s word.  I: move from the insecurity of idols to the security of God.

20-21  The ‘fugitives of the nations’ are Gentiles who are seeking the God of Israel and forsaking their idols.  We are all fugitives, seeking refuge in the Lord.

22  Exclusivity of God’s salvation and Person    

23-25  The Lord exalted – His righteousness acknowledged and confessed.  True security is found at the feet of Jesus!