Sermon Tone Analysis
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40-48: An Announcement of Hope
In the first half of the book we explored Isaiah’s message of Judgment and Hope.
He accused Israel’s leaders of rebellion against God and said that through Assyria and later Babylon Israel’s kingdom would be destroyed.
So chapter 39 concluded with Isaiah predicting Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon and exile and 200 years after that it all sadly came to pass.
But Isaiah’s greater hope was for a new purified Jerusalem where God’s kingdom would be restored through the Holy Seed and all nations would come together in peace.
So chapter 40 and following explore this great hope.
The first mail section 40-48 open with an announcement of hope.
It is a message of comfort ( 40 ), the Babylonian exile is over.
The people’s sins have been dealt with an a new era is beginning.
So they should all return home to Jerusalem where God himself will bring his kingdom and all nations will see his glory.
So Isaiah hopes that Israel will respond by becoming God’s servant, that is, that after experiencing God’s justice and mercy they will share with the nations who God truly is.
But that is not what is happening!
Israel instead of bearing witness to the nations is actually complaining and accusing God.
They say the Lord isn’t paying attention to our troubles, in fact he is ignoring our cause ( 40:27 ).
Readings
Chapter 40 ( 40:3-8; 12-15; 21-23; 27-31 )
Chapter 41 ( 41:8; 10-11 ; 21-24 )
Chapter 42 ( 42:1-4; 7-10; 14-17 )
Chapter 43 ( 43:1-7; 10-12; 25-26 )
Chapter 44 ( 44:9-17; 22-24 )
Chapter 45 ( 44:28 - 45:7; 20-23 )
Chapter 46 ( 46:3-7 )
Chapter 47 ( 47:5-11 )
Chapter 48 ( 48:3-11; 17-19 )
Chapter 40: ( 40:3-8; 12-15; 21-23; 28-31 )
This is the start of the second (2nd) half of this book.
Chapters 1-39 are entitled the Government of God and correspond to the Law and the OT.
The next twenty-seven (27) chapters 40-66 speak of the Salvation of the Lord and correspond to the message of the NT.
Like the NT, this second section starts where the NT starts with the announcement of John the Baptist and ends where the NT ends with the new heaven and new earth
40:3-8
— The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
— Where the NT starts; quoted in all 4 gospels
Prepare the Way
— Isaiah heard a voice calling for the leveling of a path so that God could lead His people out of Babylonian captivity
— Foreshadows the final and great return of Israel from spiritual darkness to God by the spiritual redemption of Messiah
( 40:6-7 ) Our lives are just a vapor, short, not permanent
( 40:8 ) In contrast to the passing of nature, there is one thing that is permanent: The Word of God
40:12-15
Missler
— Emphasis on quantitative measures ; not the qualitative
— Calling our attention to His precision
— You’ve heard about the global warming and how the temperature has gone up; if a 1/10th of one percent will somehow bring cosmic doom, flip the coin and ask yourself how did it get so precisely tuned in the first place?
( 40:15 ) as small dust on scales
— Surrounding Nations that oppressed Israel are utterly insignificant
— They cannot prevent God’s plan for Israel to be accomplished
— He can easily bring them to nothing as easily as He brought them out of nothing
40:21-23
— How foolish to trust wood, gold and silver ( idols )
— The Lord has created all of them
( 40:22 ) It is He who sits above the circle of the earth
— Interesting statement for a book written 8 centuries before Christ
— People writing in this time period and this culture had bizarre ideas, folklore
Missler
Isaiah states fact that is without error despite living in a time when this was not common knowledge
40:27-31
—( 40:27 ) The people accused the Lord of not paying attention to their plight in captivity
— They thought he was ignorant of their condition
— He was asleep.
Wake Up!
— God is not too weak to act on their behalf
— The young and the strong might tire, but God never does
Chapter 41-47
Isaiah had hoped that Israel will respond by becoming God’s servant, that they will share with the nations who God truly is.
Instead of bearing witness to the nations is actually complaining and accusing God of not paying attention to their troubles and ignoring our cause ( 40:27 ).
So 41-47 are setup like a trail.
God responds to these doubts and accusations with the following arguments.
First, the exile to Babylon was not the result of neglect.
In fact, it was divinely orchestrated as a judgment of Israel’s sin.
Second, it was for Israel’s sake that God raised up Persia to conquer Babylon so they could come back home to Jerusalem fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy ( 13:17 ).
So, the right conclusion that Israel should draw is that their God is the king of history.
In the fall of Babylon and the rise of the Persian king Cyrus Israel should see God’s hand at work and thus become His servant and tell all the nations who He is.
But that’s not what happens.
Chapter 41: ( 41:10-11 ; 21-24 )
Chapter 41 continues looking at God’s greatness - but also admonishes us to keep from idols and to trust in God.
We also saw three pictures of divine intervention from God: human hostility, human weakness and adverse circumstances
41:8
— “But you, Israel, are My servant” ( 41:8 )
— God is giving Israel to the world as a light
— The covenant and the light are not just for Israel, but the world
41:10-11
— Even though God would destroy the nations, Israel had nothing to fear
— He would protect them with His righteous hand
41:21-24
— Like a beauty contest, the Lord says, Let’s see what you have
— You think your idols are better than me?
Let’s see
( 41:22 ) God challenges the idols to prove they are gods by predicting future events
— not only can they discern the flow of event but also control the flow of events?
Chapter 42: ( 42:1-4; 7-10; 14-17 )
The first of four (4) servant songs.
In this song we see that He will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, bring justice and righteousness to the world, He shall be called a servant, ebed, slave
42:1-4
— The first of four (4) servant songs
— 42:1-4
— 49:1-6
— 50:4-7
— 52:13 - 53:12
— In the last chapter, God called Israel my servant
— “But you, Israel, are My servant” ( 41:8 )
— Jesus applies these verses to Himself
( 42:3 ) Smoldering was no good to give life
— He will not break them ( the flute or the reed )
— They are deemed useless to the world, but He shows them compassion
— He bears our weakness
7-10
— To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison
— Jesus literally fulfilled these words
— LORD; A summing up of all that God is - His holiness
( 42:10 ) A new song!
The gospel - a new song never sung before
14-17
( 42:14 ) I have held My peace ...and restrained Myself
— He remained silent until it was time to step into history
— At just the right time Christ entered the world ( Gal 4:4 )
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