
Isaiah 48 vs 6-22
Part of Isaiah
December 27, 2023
Isaiah Chapter 48 Verses 6 – 8
• This is a solid and important proof text that we need to contemplate. And a point that I’ve settled for myself and made several times in teachings, that we are sinful from the womb. That I and we are not sinners due to the individual acts of sin we all commit but rather those things simply reveal and prove what is already within us and the revelation here is that my sin and your sin, which passed to us from our common father Adam, begins at conception!
Isaiah Chapter 48 Verses 9 – 11
• Part of the promises of God to this nation of people goes all the way back to Jacob. The night that Jacob wrestled with God, it tells us in Genesis 32 that Jacob told God in Genesis 32:26, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” And that is when God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. “God prevails!” And then it started. You see this was after Jacob had sent his family to the other side of the brook they were camped beside, removing them from harm’s way, because it was the next day that Jacob would meet his fate face to face with his brother, Esau…
• Then God places His promise. You are now, “God’s victory!” And when Esau saw him that next day, he ran at him. And no doubt Jacob was frightened, but whether it was sometime before, perhaps during the night or even in the moment, something changed in Esau and instead of destroying Jacob it says in Genesis 33 that Esau ran to meet him and embraced him.
• That is only one example of an impossible situation that went the way of Israel when by all human accounts, it shouldn’t have. But God blessed Israel and that blessing was a promise. His Word. His name. And so even now, Israel, well even in the near future, as we read in Ezekiel 38 verse 9 that the nations of the earth, “ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you,” and yet this massive force against tiny Israel will be defeated, why? Ezekiel 38, verse 23, “Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord!” Why? The name…
• You see the peculiarity and valor and victory of the people of Israel has much less if anything to do with the people and everything to do about the promise of God, the Word of God and most importantly, the proclamation of the One true God! (By the placing of His own name on the nation and even the city, Jerusalem)
• This is why we read in several places in the Bible but I’ll give you one, Genesis 12:3, God says of the nation of Israel, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.” Why? Because they are God’s special people? Ok, maybe you can go that route, but one level down in understanding, those that bless Israel are validating, approving, agreeing with God’s Word and name! Those that curse Israel, has very little to do with the people and everything to do with the history and God’s name being on the line, those that curse Israel are challenging the truth of the One True God!
• Now, the nation of Israel has had it rough throughout history…, and we read here that the refinement of this people, even yours and mine, that God is doing these things, allowing these things, so that He would be glorified. Have you ever paused in the midst of a challenging season or painful problematic point in time and considered that what you are going through and where you are at is so that God would be magnified in your life? Look for it! And if you think of the story of Israel, as tragic as it is, it puts God and His power and goodness and deliverance on blast in the story of nations… Declares it!
• This may sound harsh in a way to you and it certainly does to me, but I reason with you also, who on earth actually deserves any mercy at all from God? No matter how good a person is in life, everyone is deeply sinful… So, as I read something like this, coming from a position of truthful honest reasoning, this reveals the incredible goodness of God! That all of us in an instant aren’t just cast into the sun and turned to ash….
Isaiah Chapter 48 Verses 12 – 16
• Ok, the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me? Who is talking? This is cool because one can conclude that these are the words of the preincarnate Jesus, the Son of God and the second Person of the Holy Trinity. There are three represented in this verse. The Lord God, His Spirit, and Me. And we see here the Person of the Holy Spirit as it is “He” and the Lord God that sent Jesus…
Isaiah Chapter 48 Verses 17 – 19
• I just, for myself, admire the multiplied benefit of personally considering what God has promised. His word tells me here and several other places that as I read, seek to understand, apply and live, God will teach me how to use my time profitably. That’s huge. That’s like saying this minute, moment, day of life will lead to something greater and more than I know in the future. Why would I reject that?
• He promises profit, peace, righteousness and that my family, my children, my church, my coworkers…, all will be blessed and that blessing is that they too (of course if they are willing) will learn to be proficient in profitable living! Man, I want that so much for my loved ones!
• This is also a serious warning about who you mix with in life. If God is continually teaching you to profit, and yet your business partner or partners in life are continually robbing the profit out of moments, days, situations, scenarios, the frustration can be intense!!
Isaiah Chapter 48 Verses 20 – 22
• I either choose to deny that I am in need of God and learn to live outside of peace that IS available, OR, even from the seasons and traps of captivity in this life I can escape rejoicing and singing with stomach-deep passion (the ends of the earth hear it) how good God is…, Why? Because I get to KNOW that personally!
• This word for peace, a common and well known word in the Hebrew, “salom,” pronounced, “shaw-lome,” means completeness, soundness, safety, tranquility, prosperity, even human friendship (that feeling of true fellowship and oneness with others), all of that out of reach for the wicked and destroyed by wickedness… “Oh that you had heeded My commandments…” It really all comes down to, everything about me, you, my life and your life, how its all going to go and who we are going to be in character, on the inside, really all comes down to will I choose to serve myself or to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord…
• The good news is that either way, God is going to be faithful to His promises. My experience in and of it all may change, profit or implosion…, that’s totally up to me, but whatever is up to God, His Word, even His promised salvation, will come to pass…