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TH1154: On-Line

Teaching Notes

ISAIAH

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42, as we continue our study through the Word of God. As we saw in chapter 40, God is giving words of comfort to a people who were going into exile. Words of deliverance by the hand of God, bringing them home from Babylon, and back to Jerusalem. And ultimately looking towards the kingdom age. And chapter 42 is no different. It opens up with words of comfort as we are going to see.

ISAIAH 42

VERSE 1

1. This is not speaking of Israel, but of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. How do we know this? Because Jesus quotes these verses here in Isaiah, attributing them to Himself, in Luke 3:4-6. He was the servant of God, taking on that role when He became flesh, as Mark 10:45 says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." He did those things that pleased the Father, as John 8:29 says, "And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." During Jesus' baptism the Spirit of God came upon Him, as Matthew 3:16 says, "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him."

And here is the kicker, He was to bring forth justice to the gentiles. To the Jew, the only reason a gentile was born was to fuel the fires of hell. And at the gates of hell stood father Abraham plucking out every Jew, for no Jew by reason of his birth, would ever be cast into hell, or so they thought. But Jesus came to tear down those walls of separation, uniting Jew and gentile into one body, as Paul said in Ephesians 2:13-16, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." You see, Jesus came to those who had a need, or should I say, saw a need for Him in their life, and He touched them and healed them, both Jew and gentile!

VERSE 2

1. Jesus was always under control, no matter what He did, even turning over the tables of the corrupt money changer's in the temple. I don't picture Jesus losing His temper, but firmly responding in various situations. That is what the word "meekness" means, power under control! (Matthew 11:29).

VERSE 3

1. Reeds grow abundantly along the Jordan River and they are very fragile, even the wind could blow them and bend them. The point is this, as Jesus sees a person bent over in sin, crushed, in despair, He is not going to come by and break them. His desire is to restore people.

2. A smoking flax would be a wick going out, and the smoke would become irritating. Jesus is speaking to those whose flame is going out, maybe just a glowing ember that is left, and as you are convicted over this condition, Jesus is not going to quench or put out that spark. You see, as we come to Him He will pour out the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit into our lives, and the spark is once again ignited.

3. In the temple there was the altar of sacrifice where the burnt offering or the offering of consecration was offered, as well as the other sacrifices. And in the morning the priests needed to clean out the old ashes so they would not put out the fire, and these ashes would be carried off to a holy place to be buried. It is then the new sacrifices would be offered. The point is this, you can't live off the past, for if you try to, the fire will go out. You need to have a fresh walk, clean out the old ashes, on a daily basis, or your flame will begin to flicker. It is as Paul said in Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

4. Lastly, we won't have to worry about injustice, for Jesus will bring forth justice in truth or according to the truth. His judgments will be righteous.

VERSE 4

1. Don't ever think God is going to fail or come up short in setting up His kingdom. As Paul said of Abraham in Romans 4:20-21, may we believe it and apply it to our lives. He said "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform."

VERSE 5

1. God is sovereign, He is in control, never forget that fact. He raises up kings and kingdoms, and brings them down. As Daniel said to Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, "...you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified." Daniel 5:23. God is in control, make no mistake about that.

VERSE 6

1. The Father has sent Jesus to be that new covenant that is found in His blood. He was that sacrificial lamb that took away the sins of the world.

2. Remember the prophetic words of Simeon, who was told that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Christ. And as Joseph and Mary brought Jesus into the temple to be circumcised, Simeon took Jesus in his arms, as he praised God, and said "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel." Luke 2:29-32. But to allow gentiles to partake of what God had given to the Jews was a very difficult thing for many of the Jews to accept, even Peter struggled with this issue. But God's grace and mercy is extended to all men. As Titus 2:11 says "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."

VERSE 7

1. The ministry of Jesus is to set the captives free, those who have been taken prisoner by sin. He came to open they eyes of those who were spiritually blind. Remember the story in John chapter 9, as Jesus opened the eyes of a man who was born blind. He said "...'One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.'" John 9:25. That is the testimony of all of us here, born blind but made to see by the grace and mercy that God has extended to us! Setting us free from the bondage of sin. That is what its all about! Christ has impacted our lives and made a difference, or at least He should!

VERSE 8

1. Now that seems very selfish unless He is the only one who deserves it, and He is! God is zealous about protecting His glory and I have seen more people taken out of ministry by God because they desire the glory instead of giving it to God, the only one who deserves it! As Paul said in I Corinthians 3:21, "Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours."

VERSE 9

1. Prophecy is one of the strongest evidences we have for the inspiration of the Scriptures. God has told us beforehand the things that would come to pass, and as they come to pass it strengthens our faith. For instance, the over 330 prophecies of Christ's first coming that have all been fulfilled, and we can check them out to see how they all did come to pass. That strengthens our faith in regards to the over 500 prophecies related to Christ's second coming. Thus, just as it was predicted of Christ's first coming and it came to pass, so too will He return to set up His kingdom, you can take that to the bank! And the idea here brings us back to Isaiah chapter 41 when God challenges the idols to speak forth of the things that would come to pass, and they were silent!

VERSES 10-13

1. This is a picture of God setting up His kingdom here on the earth, as praise fills the land. But before that happens the lion of the tribe of Judah will step forth and pour out His wrath on a Christ rejecting world. Yes, He came the first time as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but He is coming again as a roaring lion!

VERSE 14

1. I thank God for His patience and longsuffering, but I also recognize that it is coming to an end very quickly. For once the tribulation period starts, His wrath is poured out, and it will be like a woman in labor, there is no stopping it, and the judgments will increase in intensity and frequency until the kingdom age is birthed! As Peter said "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." II Peter 3:9-10.

VERSES 15-16

1. As God brought His people home from their captivity, which was still over 100 years down the road, the land would be desolate, but He would restore it. And thus, looking ahead to the future, the land will be destroyed during the tribulation period, but God will restore it in the kingdom age.

VERSE 17

1. For those who reject Christ and put their faith in idols, they will be put to shame and brought into judgment.

VERSES 18-20

1. The children of Israel had seen God do many marvelous things and yet it truly did not sink down into their heats. They heard the things the prophets said, but again they did not believe. God had given them so much, but they refused to see and hear. People are no different today!

VERSES 21-22

1. This speaks of their captivity, brought about by their continual sin and refusal to repent. It also speaks of their not recognizing their messiah, as Luke 19:41-44 tell us. We read "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.'" And destruction came this time by the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.

VERSES 23-25

1. Here is a picture of God judging His people, bringing them into captivity, and their refusal to repent and get right with God. Millions of Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and out of that, when they were freed to go home by Cyrus king of Persia, only a little under 50,000 returned home. Many became comfortable living in the world!

ISAIAH 43

VERSE 1

1. God has just dealt harshly with His people for their sin. Now for those who think Israel can forfeit the covenant that God made with them, think again! God said He created them, formed them, called them, they are His! In fact, He calls them by name which implies to me that they are His children. You don't name someone else's children! Remember in Genesis 15 when the covenant was given to Abraham, it was a unilateral covenant, based upon God's faithfulness and not Abraham, for Abraham was sleeping when God sealed the covenant by passing through the sacrificial animals. Then in Genesis chapter 17 God tells Abraham that they will always be His people and He will always be their God! And don't think God has given up on Israel or forsaken them today, as some teach. Paul said in Romans 11:25-27, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.'"

2. Also, the New covenant is a unilateral covenant, not based upon our faithfulness or our efforts, but upon the Lord's!

VERSE 2

1. Yes they will go through some difficult times because of their rebellion, but God will still be with them. We see this with the 3 Hebrew teenagers who were placed in the fiery furnace and the soldiers who threw them in were burned to death, but as king Nebuchadnezzar looked into this fiery furnace, he said "...'Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said to the king, 'True, O king.' 'Look!' he answered, 'I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.'" Daniel 3:24-25. You see, God was with them even in the fiery furnace as He had said!

VERSE 3

1. As Cyrus king of Persia let them go and return to Jerusalem, God gave them the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Seba in their place. It is as Vine writes: "The Lord rewarded Cyrus the Persian Monarch for liberating them, by permitting him and his son Cambyses to possess Egypt and the neighboring kingdoms. Seba was the largest district between the White and the Blue Nile, contiguous to Ethiopia. The possession of these lands was not merely a gift, it was a ransom price (a kopher, or covering), the people on whose behalf payment was made, being covered by it." It is as Proverbs 21:18 says, "The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, And the unfaithful for the upright." And in Proverbs 11:8 we read, "The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the wicked instead."

VERSE 4

1. Why are we precious in His sight? Some have come to the wrong conclusion that it is because we are worthy, for you would never pay with your life for something that is worthless. You see, no longer are we wretched sinners, according to some. But that is not what the Scriptures have to say. Why then are we precious in His sight? Because God chose us to be precious, it is because of Him and not us! As Paul said in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells..."

VERSES 5-6

1. The near fulfillment of this prophecy is the return of the Jews from their captivity. But the long term fulfillment is partially seen with the re-gathering of the Jews from around the world into the land of Israel, which occurred on May 14, 1948, as the nation of Israel was reborn. And the complete fulfillment is when God gathers His people together, the Jewish people, to enter into the kingdom with Him, as Matthew 24:31 tells us, "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

VERSE 7

1. We have been created to bring glory to God. Now, obviously you don't have to do that. You can fight against that, because God has given you a free will. But also understand this, there is no greater joy, no greater satisfaction than to be used as God intended us to be used, to bring Him glory. Yes, it is not always easy, but it is what is best, for it is the reason we were created. In Revelation 4:11, we are told that very thing. We read, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

VERSES 8-9

1. What other nation, what other idol, what other religion can speak of future events as truth? There are NONE! Except for God, of course, and He has given them to us to show us who He is!

VERSE 10

1. Now this is a great verse for Mormons. You see, they believe if you are a good Mormon man, that one day you will get your own planet to populate with your many wives and you will be god over the whole thing. But God is saying that there are no other God's, PERIOD!

VERSE 11

1. Now we are an equal opportunity offender of the cults, you might say. For this passage speaks against the Jehovah Witnesses who believe that Jesus is not Jehovah God, but a god. Not Almighty God, but a Mighty god. And yet it says here that Jehovah, "LORD" in capital letters, is our Savior. Now they may try to argue the point, but the New Testament says in Luke 2:11, "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." John 4:42 says, "...'Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'" Acts 5:30-31 says, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Acts 13:23 says, "From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior; Jesus." And then in Hosea 13:4 we once again read, "Yet I am the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For there is no Savior besides Me." The point is this, Jehovah is Savior and Jehovah is Jesus, the Savior of the world! (Also Titus 2:13, II Timothy 1:10, I Timothy 4:10).

VERSE 12

1. Speaking of the time King Hezekiah cleansed the land of foreign gods and God delivered them from the hands of the Assyrians, who had surrounded Jerusalem.

VERSE 13

1. Speaking of the Sovereignty of God. Don't ever think God has lost control, He hasn't!

VERSES 14-15

1. God is going to send Cyrus and the Persian army into Babylon and the Babylonians will be defeated. And there will be much wailing over their defeat, they thought that no one could bring them down, but they forgot about God!

VERSES 16-17

1. This speaks of the time when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, leading them through the Red Sea on dry ground and drowning the Egyptian army that came after them. God wanted them to remember this so they could be encouraged during their time in captivity, seeing how God had brought them out of Egypt, and how He will also bring them out of Babylon.

VERSES 18-21

1. We are not to live in the past but we surely can learn from the past and be strengthened in the present situation we are in. Here God is speaking of the kingdom age and how all their returns from captivity will pale in comparison to what god is going to do then. The land will blossom once again and the nation of Israel, as a whole, will turn to their Messiah, Jesus!

VERSES 22-24

1. God wanted fellowship but instead they continued in their sin. They brought no sin offering, and if they did, they many times came out of the wrong heart, Isaiah spoke about that in the opening chapters, or they brought to God the sick, the broken animals, and how can you bring before Almighty God what is not the best? That is no way to honor the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

VERSES 25-26

1. God is calling for them to return to Him, even though they have wearied Him with their sins, because He desires to blot out their transgressions, to cast their sins as far as the east is from the west, to be remembered no more. He calls for us to state our case before Him, not that He needs to be reminded, but many times we do, to awaken us out of our spiritual complacency. Remember what Isaiah 1:18 said, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the LORD, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.'"

VERSES 27-28

1. Some say this speaks of Adam, others Jacob, but most likely it speaks of father Abraham, who also blew it many times. Also the priests, and the prophets many times were evil and speaking falsely, representing God the way they wanted to. And the point here, I believe, is that none are righteous, no not one, not even father Abraham, the priests or even the prophets of God! Now there is a chapter division, which disrupts the flow. We read in the beginning of chapter 44, "Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you..." Isaiah 44:1-2a.

You see, God loves them, He has redeemed them. In fact, in Isaiah 46:13 we read "I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, For Israel My glory." He calls Israel His glory - why? Because they were to be an object lesson to the world of who Jehovah is. The same is true for the church - Jesus said in Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." We are called the chaste virgin of Christ, but on a practical level, a day by day level, we fall far short of that. But God still loves us, as He does Israel, and He desires for us to be His witnesses here in Manitowoc - our Jerusalem. In Two Rivers, White Law, Kiel, Cleveland - our Judea and Samaria. And India, Russian, the Ukraine - our end of the earth. What a joy it is to serve the Lord! And understand this, He is not looking for perfect people to work through, because He would not find any. He is looking for people who desire to be used by God, willing vessels for God to flow through and touch the lives of others. It is as II Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him..." Just be willing to be open to Him, for He desires to use you!