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Notices
Isaiah 46 verses 3-13
Here we are the first Sunday of 2009 and it is fitting and appropriate that we meet around the Lord's Table to share in fellowship together in the sacrament of Holy Communion. This service, above all others in our church, calls us to remember, to remind ourselves, of the central act of the Christian faith - namely the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. This service calls us back to the foundation of our faith - namely Jesus Christ.
In today's OT reading the people of God were called to remember, to remind themselves, once again of the sovereignty of God and of His providential care for them. It is very appropriate that this morning, at the beginning of a New Year, we should do the same. Turn with me to Isaiah 46.
This passage was written somewhere shortly before 539BC, before Cyrus, king of Persia, issued his decree which allowed the Israelites to return to Jordan from they Babylonian captivity. It is apparent from the passage that there is an underlying unbelief and scepticism amongst the people of God concerning God's providential care and sovereignty. I would say the same scepticism and unbelief is apparent amongst many who would today claim to be followers of Christ. God now addresses that issue in the passage before us.
Verses 1-2 Bel and Nebo were two gods of the Babylonian peoples. Bel, which means 'lord' was supposedly the father of Nebo (speaker). Once a year they held a festival in which these gods were carried around the cities amidst great celebration. The irony is that these 'gods' who are supposed to protect and rescue the people who worship them require those same people to carry them about. In fact in verse 2 the Lord God speaks of how these very gods are themselves carried off as plunder when the Assyrians attack. They are unable to protect or rescue themselves. Leaving the obvious conclusion that they are unable to protect or rescue those who bow down in worship before them
Verses 3-4 what a contrast when compared to the living God. How very different is the relationship that God has with His people Israel. His people do not carry Him about, in contrast to the idols of Babylon. The Lord God carries His people. Look at these two verses and note all that God does for these people. He creates them, sustains them, upholds them, carries them and rescues them. It is all His work and not theirs. It is all an act of grace on God's part and not of works on their part. The absurdity of idolatry - they carry their gods, is compared to the covenant faith of Israel where God carries His people. From the very infancy of their existence God has carried them and there is in these words a commitment, a divine promise that God will never cease to carry them. There was never a time when His hands did not uphold them and there will never be a time when His hands will not sustain them. The changelessness of God is the bedrock of this promise. The faithfulness of God to His covenant with His people gives them an assurance that idols never could.
God calls them to 'listen to me' or as it was in the King James 'hearken unto me.' God is saying to them: "Stop right there, listen to these words, do not let them slip past you, take a moment and linger here and ponder these things in your heart and mind." These are words of great tenderness and endearment with the single purpose of leading these wayward people back to God their Father. God knows that His people will always need His protection, even if they themselves do not recognise that fact. He promises never to forsake them, even thought they have been a stubborn hearted and rebellious people. God assures them, and us, that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Therefore they, and we, can rest secure on the knowledge that this is how He behaved towards His people in the past and will do the same in the present.
Verses 5-7. God now asks two rhetorical questions of the people of God. Each question expects a negative answer. There is no one, no god that compares to the living God. We sing 'There is no one like Jehovah.' The idols they have made with their own hands are dead. They literally squander their wealth, their time, their talents and energy in making these images. These images are made according to their finite, sinful imaginations. They make gods in their own image. Yet these gods cannot see, cannot hear, cannot move, cannot speak and therefore are powerless to save in time of need or danger. These gods require their makers to carry them about and yet they bow down and worship what their hands have made? But be honest we are no different. How many of you make 'gods in your own image?' How many bow down to what their own hands have created? How many of you seek to create God in your own image and according to your own will? You may think you never would do such a thing but when Israel insisted that God shape the future to ft her beliefs she was being idolatrous. Are you any different? In 2009 when you ask God to shape the year ahead to fit your beliefs, your will, your desires then you are being idolatrous. Israel, as we will see, was reluctant to say the least to accept God's will that Cyrus, a Persian king, would be the means of freeing them from the captivity of Babylon. Six centuries later Israel would reject a carpenter from Nazareth as the means of God's salvation and the freedom from the captivity of sin. How many here this morning are in that situation?
The powerlessness of idols is in stark contrast to the sovereign power of the living God. Idols require human hands to be made and transported about. God makes man in His image and it is God who carries man around in the very palm of His hand.
Verses 8-13. Here are words of consolation and encouragement to the people of God. Isaiah realises that there is much unbelief and scepticism amongst the people of God. They approach the prophecies concerning Cyrus and the freeing of the people from captivity with scepticism.
In verses 8-9 God asks His people to look back and to consider their relationship with Him. God calls them to fix it in their minds (the literal translation of that can be 'be men and not brutes which neither consider nor understands.' They were to remember, recall and meditate on the historical relationship that they had with God. There is an historical reference to their faith, to our faith. It is not a blind faith. It is not wishful thinking. It is based on the self-revelation of God through history in a living and ongoing relationship with His people. The truth about God is declared by God in history. There is no God like God. He alone is the living and true God. He alone creates, sustains and rescues His people. Idols are powerless to affect the condition of men. Yet these people have been rebellious and stubborn hearted towards God. They had violated the covenant relationship by making idols and bowing down in worship to them. Let me ask you have you violated the covenant relationship with God by making idols in your own life and bowing down to worship them? I am not talking about the figure in a corner but what has taken the place of God in your life? You don't think these words apply to Holy Trinity, to you? Let me share with you for one moment the most frequent comment I have heard said about Holy Trinity by the members of Holy Trinity over the past four months or so - 'there is so much apathy about the place.' Apathy comes about when God is no longer first in the life of His people and when that happens, God will come and waken His people up or depart from them! You don't believe there is idolatry in Holy Trinity - look around you and answer God when He asks: where are all my people this morning? Where will God's people be on Wednesday night when the call to prayer goes out? Idolatry in the Christian church and amongst God's people is a dreadful sin.
In verses 10-11 God unfolds His plan of redemption for the people of Israel. Cyrus, a Persian king, will be summoned like a bird of prey from the east. He will come with great speed and destruction, just like a bird of prey. The people of Israel where reluctant to believe that God would use a pagan king to free them from Babylonian captivity but God informs them that when He speaks it comes to past. Whether they believe God or not is not the issue, God's will will be done. No man can thwart the plan of God. God speaks the future into being and nothing will prevent God accomplishing His desire for His people. When God tells them that He will 'do all that pleases me' He is establishing once again in their hearts and minds His sovereignty over creation and history. God is sovereign and there is nothing that is outside of His sovereign will. Some things may be outside His moral will but nothing is outside His sovereign will. God is not taken by surprise by events in this world. God is not absent from this world. God was not absent, uninterested or uninvolved in the life of His people as they languished in Babylonian captivity. The same Lord God is here today and is in control today. The very same Lord God is not absent from your life and has a plan for your life that He in His divine providence is working out - for His glory and your salvation. Do you believe that? Are you sceptical of His divine providence in your life? Do you believe that whatever comes into your life is for the glory of God and your salvation? I know that is hard to accept. I know that it is hard sometimes to believe that God is in control of all things but friends, His word says He is. Our feelings lie to us because they are tainted by sin, by our own selfishness and self-centredness. Israel needed to once again look back, to listen again to the voice of God telling them that God is the living and true God. That God alone knows the future, controls all things and saves His people from captivity.
Verses 12-13. Let me finish by reading these two verses to you. Take these words to heart this morning. You may well be stubborn-hearted and far from the righteousness of God this morning. You may be born again this morning but right at this precise moment you are rebelling against God in your life, through sin and disobedience. You may be born again this morning and yet you are harbouring resentment at God because something has come into your life or the life of your family and right at this moment you are doubting God's care, God's goodness and God's grace for you and yours. We all fit into this somewhere this morning. Yet God's word says to you this morning - God will bring salvation out of Zion - He did bring it in Christ. God's word tells you this morning - God is in control and He cares, He sustains, He upholds and He ultimate saves His people. Question is: Do you believe it? Answer: God will fulfil His good, perfect and righteous will whether you believe or not. As Isaiah says the Lord God will enable you to soar on eagles wings but you can only do that when you trust Him and allow His will to be done.
Amen.
