Isaiah 41 vs 1-29

Isaiah Chapter 41 Verse 1
We ended the last chapter with the words, “Those who wait on the Lord shall be renewed in their strength.” And here we open this chapter with similar words and many Bible commentators believe that what’s happening here with this repetition is actually a contrast is being cast.
This verse speaks of the distant coastlands (that word being translated as “islands” elsewhere in this book) keeping silent as they come near to God and then given an opportunity to speak. What’s seems to be going on here is judgment of the nations who indeed do not wait on the Lord. God is telling them to gather their strength. From where? Well, that’s the contrast from the last chapter… And then when they come in front of God in judgement, they are permitted to speak… “Justify your rejection of Me. Justify your idolatry.” Wow, that is frightening to think of that command…
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 2 – 4
Who is the “one from the east?” The honest answer is that we do not know. However, we can follow the contextual clues and in just a few chapters (Chapter 45), a world leader to come will be named. That man is Cyrus. And that is incredible. Why? Because Cyrus, the coming king of the Meado Persian Empire, the world power after Babylon, he won’t be born for another 100 years!
This chapter is a testimony to the nation and to the nations and the majority of the Bible is frankly a testimony to the fact of God. Why? Prophecy. If God is God, and if this is the Word of God, then it has to be 100% accurate in terms of what it foretells. If one word of the Bible fails then it must not be written by God…
And yet for thousands of years, year and year, generation after generation, every word of prophecy being proven true as God rolls out the scroll of His story through the ages. And some of those prophecies are truly incredible such as the calling forth and even naming of Cyrus the man from the east, the man from the north, who will be given nations and ultimately be used by God to fulfill His foretold purposes!
And verse 4 is powerful! “I, the Lord, am the First; and with the Last, I am He.” Who is speaking? This is God, the Most High. Turn over to Revelation 22:13. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Who is speaking? This is God, the Most High. Now look at Revelation 22:16. “I, Jesus…” Who is Jesus? He is God, the Most High!
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 5 – 7
This is such a wonderful hope of the future righteous reign of Jesus Christ upon this earth during the Millennial Reign. Everyone, everyone “helped.” That word in the Hebrew means to surround with support…, I love that! This is a small glimpse of a world in allegiance to Jesus Christ… AND….
AND, notice the verse preceding this statement of great comfort speaks of fear. Those that fear the Lord, this is them now. Not perfect in this and certainly not 100% consistent as we all battle with the flesh, but those that fear the Lord even today seek to surround others with support and help…, and, as it says here in verse 7, one encourages another.
Fearing the Lord simply means to honor Him. Those that believe He is who He said He is and He will do what He says He will do…, AND, one day you will give an account…, believe that and you fear the Lord and your actions and attitudes will reek of it!
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verse 8
Why did God refer to Abraham as His friend? He liked Abraham’s beard? Did Abraham and God wear the same name brand? Did they go to the same High School? Of course not! The point I’m making is that there wasn’t something about Abraham that gave God a special affinity for him over others.
Then what was it? Genesis 15:6 tells us why God considered Abraham His friend. “Abraham believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Abraham believed Him. That’s it. And that created a bond that God wanted with Abraham and that He wants with me. God desires to call me, you and anyone His friend. (Side note, that belief that Abraham had, it wasn’t just a mental thing…, one example, at 99 years old, he circumcised himself! Believing God isn’t just thinking that God is true. It’s acting like it even when it costs you greatly!!)
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 9 – 10
Will God strengthen me as I walk in the flesh? Will He help me as I destroy myself in sin? Will He uphold me with His righteous right hand while I deconstruct all that He is trying to build in my life? If you said yes then I feel empathetically sorry for you. You’re going to be disappointed and you’re going to suffer… sometimes for your entire life as some paths lead you to irreversible consequences…
And yet I’m empathetic because I too, maybe all of us have, mistaken God’s grace and love for acceptance of my sin. God loves me. He will never leave me nor forsake me…, and when I decide to do evil, He loves me…, never leaves me nor forsakes me… And in that free will and grace, I am free to walk in the flesh, but I am not free from what it will do to me spiritually, emotionally and physically.
The key to these awesome promises in verse 10 is verse 9. “You are My servant.” My experience with God can be His comfort and loving embrace as I weep and suffer the consequence of my sin or it can be God’s empowering, strengthening, His help, His favor and His upholding of Me as I seek to be His servant.
In one circumstance I get a beautiful part of God. In the latter circumstance, I get all of Him. And all of that is my choice….
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 11 – 14
Do you ever just feel like a worm? Well take heart, God is yet with you, He still loves you, and His desire is to help you out of your current wormhole! HA!
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 15 – 20
The idea here (or perhaps one idea - my encouragement to you and to myself is) is that we serve a God that doesn’t accept impossibilities. He can do what we cannot do… And its really on me to trust Him even when I don’t see a path…
I’m a planner, a thinker, a calculator, and I see things can go this way or that way or this other way and so I make a decision what I’m going to do based upon the path I want to go along… But sometimes things are dark, difficult…, evil itself is unreasonable and situations feel like there’s no way to get to an acceptable result. And I begin to panic and grow frustrated. But Jesus said He was not only the Truth and the Life but that He is also the Way… I don’t need to know the path if I am following Him… I can still proceed with confidence…
And one of these things catches my attention. He says here, “I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together…” That’s not where they belong. They belong in the forest. They belong being planted by rivers of living waters… But something I heard this week that I share with you…
A tree planted where water is plentiful remains shallow in root. No need to venture out, spread out its root system looking for water, and if there is ever a tempest of a storm, that tree is in trouble, because its root system is near the surface. But a tree planted where water is scarce spreads out its roots and runs them deep, and when water is found, roots gather, from many trees and those roots not only go deep, but intertwine, and give incredible strength to the tree itself to last through all sorts of storms.
And I realize, as a good Father, this is God’s desire for me…
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 21 – 24
To think that we make gods with our own imaginations and even hands is ridiculous at best. And God says put your false gods to the test. Don’t just follow them blindly. If so, then even you become and are an abomination…, you make no sense…
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 25 – 29
Their molded images are wind and confusion… What a statement and COULD NOT be more accurately portrayed. Only God is God. Nothing else and no one else and anything else is as good as wind…, you hear it, sense it, maybe even feel it but where’d it go…? I’m only left confused. And so, God deployed the Solution to a very confused world as Jesus brought to us Truth and Grace! So, my choice. Wind and confusion…, or Grace and Truth!