June 15, 2025 • 43 mins
Have you ever had your world collapse around you, feeling disoriented and dejected as everything you counted on disappeared? This powerful message from Isaiah 40 speaks directly to that experience, offering profound hope for those struggling to maintain faith in challenging circumstances.
The ancient Judeans, exiled in Babylon, faced a devastating spiritual crisis. Their temple destroyed, their nation gone, and their hope vanished, they were tempted to believe God had failed them. Surrounded by the imposing idols and triumphant culture of their captors, they faced two dangerous temptations we still encounter today: abandoning faith altogether or compromising their identity to blend in with the dominant culture.
Isaiah's response isn't tactical advice or simplistic cheerleading. Instead, he thunders "Behold your God!" and systematically dismantles every competing claim to ultimate authority. With breathtaking imagery, he reveals how God measures oceans in His palm, weighs mountains on scales, and calls each star by name. Nations? Mere dust on scales. Rulers? Grass that withers in a moment. Idols? Lifeless objects needing craftsmen just to stand upright.
This vision of God's supremacy speaks powerfully to our modern context. We face our own "Babylonian gods" - materialism promising fulfillment, political ideologies demanding loyalty, technology claiming omniscience, celebrity influencers modeling values, and scientific materialism presenting itself as the final authority on truth. Each calls for allegiance while promising security and wisdom.
Yet Isaiah's message persists: these powers are nothing - "utterly nothing" - compared to the living God. The antidote to our disorientation isn't found in rejecting false idols alone, but in glimpsing the incomparable greatness of a God who speaks words of comfort even to those in exile.
Join us as we explore how lifting our eyes to behold God transforms our perspective on challenging circumstances and renews our hope when everything seems lost. This isn't ancient history - it's the living word speaking directly to the pressures and temptations of our modern lives.
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Episode Transcript
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Doug McMasters (00:00):
Sacred Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah.
For those of you that are justvisiting or just recently come
in, we're studying through thebook of Isaiah.
We started it in September oflast year and we've been going
through it.
Just give me a second.
My computer has forgotten whatmy face looks like.
(00:24):
I think maybe that's telling meto get my beard trimmed.
There we go.
We started our look at the bookof Isaiah in September and
we're continuing on and we'llfinish it probably February or
March of next year.
As we study through this book,we've entered into a new section
.
As you turn the page fromchapter 39 to 40, you leap about
(00:47):
100 years forward, away from anation trembling under the grip
of Assyrian advance and now to anation in defeat, captured by
the Babylonians and torn awayfrom their homeland captured by
the Babylonians and torn awayfrom their homeland.
For those of you that are onour Google group, our NHPBC
(01:09):
Google group, I wrote out alittle introduction that expands
that a little bit.
And if you would like to be onour church's distribution or
Google group, just please letMicah or me or the office know
that you'd like to be so In yourbulletin or three email
addresses.
You can write to me or to Micah, or me or the office know that
you'd like to be so In yourbulletin, or three email
addresses.
You can write to me or to Micahor to the church office and
just request to be put on ourGoogle discussion group and
(01:32):
you'll be able to get all thosethings.
But here we are in chapter 40,where God is now speaking to a
people in defeat, a people whohave been captured, a people who
have been captured, a peoplewho have been torn from their
land.
And so, before we look deeperinto this chapter, let's pray
together.
(01:52):
Father, we ask that you mightgive us an understanding of your
word here, as you spoke to thepeople in this situation and as
you speak to ours, ourgeneration in ours, and we ask,
lord, that you might infuse uswith the hope and encouragement
(02:14):
and the promises and the insightthat this section of Scripture
provides, and we ask this inChrist's name, amen.
Have you ever had your worldcollapse around you, to feel
like it's moved and evendisappeared beneath your feet?
To feel like all those thingsthat you once counted on,
(02:36):
whether it be your routines orthose things that you considered
your or perhaps even yourpurpose to have been swept aside
and left disoriented left,confused left, dejected left,
depressed left wandering aboutin a world that doesn't make
(02:56):
sense anymore.
Well, that's exactly how theJudeans would have felt right in
this moment.
How the Judeans would have feltright in this moment.
They're in exile in Babylon.
They were known as God's chosenpeople and now they're a
captured people, not captured bythe living God, but captured by
idol-worshiping nations thatspeak different languages than
(03:20):
they.
In Babylon, their temple hasbeen destroyed, their nation is
gone and their hope, well, it'snot only dimmed, it's
disappeared.
There's strangers in this worldthat's now filled with idols
and empires, and they aregathered there, disillusioned
(03:44):
and tempted to believe thatmaybe, just maybe, that Yahweh
has failed them.
And in this moment they'regoing to be tempted.
They're going to be tempted toabandon Yahweh in discouragement
, or tempted to acquiesce to thegods of power around them.
And I think we can understandthat.
(04:10):
We're not in Babylon, we're notin captivity, but we're
surrounded by a world systemthat's full of powers, be they
political or cultural ortechnological, or even
scientific, that pull at ourloyalties to Christ.
We're constantly under pressureto deconstruct or to round the
(04:31):
sharp contours of our Christianfaith, to assume that trusting
God belongs to some past,simpler time and isn't something
that is applicable to thismodern day.
But Isaiah speaks.
He speaks to people in his time, to those that are just beyond
(04:54):
his time, as he does in thispassage.
And he also speaks to ourgeneration.
And he doesn't just whisper, heshouts.
And he doesn't just whisper, heshouts.
And he doesn't just tell peoplewhat to do, he tells them who
to look at, he tells them whoGod is.
And in the midst of all theillusions and disillusions of
(05:19):
the people in Babylon, we'regoing to find in this passage of
Scripture that God revealshimself as creator, as one
superior over the nations, onewho exposes idols for what they
really are, who humbles rulersand exalts himself over the
(05:41):
heavenlies.
See, this passage is not justsome old passage that we're
going to look at, and look at itwith some sense of nostalgia
and wonder what it might've beenlike back then.
It's a living reality.
Isaiah speaks of rescue and aswe go deeper into the section of
chapters 40 to 55, we'll seethat rescue motif brought out
time and time again.
And he's not inviting us toescape at this moment.
(06:04):
And he's not inviting us toescape at this moment he's
inviting us to live with hope inthe middle of Babylon, just as
he was calling the people hereto do so.
And he calls us to lift oureyes up and to look Behold your
(06:26):
God, because if we don't, oureyes are going to be focused on
the things here and tempted togive ourselves to them.
So let's walk through this text, verses 12 through 26 of Isaiah
, chapter 40.
And in it let us see how we areto lift up our eyes to behold
our God.
(06:47):
The first thing I want to do isjust rehearse some of the
temptations, and thesetemptations are going to be
coming to us from this wholesection of Scripture.
So I'm not going to turn to avery verse in this moment, but
just to give you a bit of asummary of the pressures that
are in play here.
The first thing we want to noteis these dangerous temptations,
(07:09):
and there's two of them.
The Judeans, who were in exile,faced a dangerous temptation to
move away from the faithfulnessof God and, first of all, to
abandon Yahweh, and first of all, to abandon Yahweh.
Here they are, in exile,crushed by defeat, and tempted
(07:34):
to shift their allegiance toBabylon's gods.
There were two, there are many,but there were two key deities
in Babylon.
The first was Marduk, alsoknown as Bel, and you might have
heard the name Belshazzar ifyou've read the book of Daniel.
So there's that name stuck in,or that name of one of the gods
(07:54):
stuck into his name.
That's the chief God who wasassociated with order and
kingship and creation.
And then there was NabuNebuchadnezzar.
You hear it?
He's the God of wisdom andwriting and prophecy.
And from an ancient Near Eastperspective, judah's defeat was
(08:17):
not just a military victory andconquest of Babylon over the
people.
This was a battle of the gods,and the gods of Babylon won.
That's how they would havelooked at it.
The exiles would have beentempted to think that their loss
(08:41):
was not just simply they didn'thave enough arms to hold their
city they didn't have enougharms to hold their city but
rather these two gods of Bel andNabu were more powerful than
Yahweh.
They would have thought, andhad been tempted to think, just
(09:04):
as the rest of the ancient NearEast world did at that time,
that these gods had empoweredthe Babylonian military to
conquer and to absorb theirhomeland, that Bel and Nabu had
defeated Yahweh, that Bel andNabu had destroyed Jerusalem,
that these gods had plunderedYahweh's temple and that these
(09:25):
gods had plundered Yahweh'stemple and that these gods had
captured their king.
And so they were temptedtempted to believe that Yahweh
was weak, that he was defeatedand that he was powerless, and
that they were right andjustified to refuse Isaiah when
(09:50):
he had spoken to them, and theother prophets when they had
preached to them, because, intheir mind, by losing this
battle and being brought intoexile, everything that those
prophets had told them was justa lie, because look what
happened.
But the problem wasn't thatYahweh had failed and he
(10:12):
shouldn't be trusted, becausethe prophets had told them that
the people had failed andweren't going to be trusted and
that where they were was aconsequence of their abandonment
of the Lord over the decadesand even centuries.
But there was a secondtemptation to acquiesce to
(10:36):
Babylonian rule.
There was the risk of justgiving themselves over in
complete surrender, to eradicateany of the contours of what it
meant to be a servant of Yahwehand to assimilate as best they
could into Babylonian culturewithout any allegiance to Yahweh
(10:59):
at all.
So, though they might haveprivate devotions to Yahweh,
their public life and servicewould look exactly like what
Babylon wanted, and they couldhave even quoted a verse to do
that Wrongly.
But Jeremiah told them inJeremiah 29 and verse 7, pursue
(11:23):
the well-being of the city thatI've deported you to Pray to the
Lord on his behalf, for when itthrives, you will thrive.
And so some of them, instead ofengaging with wisdom, would have
considered that a capitulationof full assimilation and just
dive straight in and doneeverything to be as Babylonian
(11:44):
as they could be.
Dive straight in and doneeverything to be as Babylonian
as they could be.
What's at the heart of this?
It's a misunderstanding of whoGod is.
They had rejected him based onfalse assumptions, rather than
(12:05):
recognizing his continuedsovereignty, even in their hard
situation.
Chesterton is reputed to havesaid it's hard to find the
actual proof of this, but he'sreputed to have said that the
effect of not believing in Godis not that you believe in
nothing, but rather that you areopen to believing anything.
(12:26):
And that's exactly what'shappening here.
By denying Yahweh, they'reopening themselves up to an
understanding and a lifestylethat is completely wide open,
and that's our temptation aswell.
We live in a world.
(12:46):
We're not captured by Babylon.
We're residents in it, however,and there are a lot of
parallels in the ideologies andthe institutions, and even the
political and entertainmentfigures in our world that are
calling out for our allegiances,that are promising to us
security and wisdom andprosperity, if only we give up
(13:12):
our spiritual allegiance to God.
Materialism and consumerism runrampant in our society,
promising us fulfillment, butalways leading to another
gnawing heart that's unfulfilledPolitical and national idolatry
that demand our loyalty andeven call us to capitulate to
(13:35):
them.
Technological supremacy istelling us, like Nebo, the gods
of wisdom, that those thingspossess all the understanding
that we need for life.
Celebrity and influences,figures in entertainment or on
social media, are telling usthat we need to be shaping our
(13:57):
values and shaping our behaviorsaccording to the contours that
they provide by way of their ownexample.
And then science exalts itselfproudly as the final authority
over all things that are trueand real, as though they were
(14:18):
the sole source of truth.
Until you get three scientistsin a room and find out how much
they have to argue with eachother.
Bel and Nebo they embodied thedominance of Babylon.
They embodied the wisdom andcultural supremacy, and these
(14:42):
were great temptations to theJudeans.
And Isaiah, in this section ofscripture, is going to challenge
all of that.
He's going to wash away thisfalse reality by reminding them
of who Yahweh is, of who God isand that he reigns supreme.
And the critique that he givesis not calling the people simply
(15:06):
to reject false idols, but toexpose how ultimately powerless
they are in comparison to thealmighty God.
And this is our answer today.
It isn't for us simply to beblasting the critiques of
(15:27):
society, exposing all of theirweaknesses in every way, unless
we do so in comparison to theall-encompassing supremacy of
God himself, who is the sourceof life and truth.
Who is the source of life andtruth?
And so what Isaiah has to sayis vital to us.
(15:50):
And as we go through thissection of scripture, there's
one thing that we're going to doOnce we've understood that
these temptations are here, iswe get a sense of understanding
God.
And so I want us to look atthis passage, and we're going to
break it down into fivesections very quickly Verses 12
(16:12):
to 14, we're going to see Yahwehas creator.
Verses 15 to 17, as sovereignover the nations.
Verses 18 to 20, as Lord overall in comparison to the idols.
Verses 21 to 24, that he is incommand of the rulers of this
(16:37):
earth, and verses 25 and 26,even stands above and controls
all the stars and planets in thesky.
What the people need is notsomething to do or something to
argue against, but a God tobehold.
And so let's behold him asIsaiah unpacks these comparative
(17:00):
statements.
First of all, that God is thecreator, that he is full of
incomparable wisdom andsovereignty.
Earlier in the book of Isaiah,in chapter six, when the prophet
was given his commission topreach, he was given a vision
where he went into the verythrone room of God and saw him
(17:22):
exalted.
But it wasn't just the Lordthat he saw.
He also saw some angelic beings, seraphim, who were surrounding
the throne, who were crying outholy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts.
And he heard them speak.
He heard the Lord speak whowill I send, who will go for us?
(17:48):
And that us word is reallyinteresting.
It's almost as though God isspeaking to a divine counsel and
saying we need a messenger onearth, and who's going to be
that one?
And so there might be sometemptation in reading that
(18:12):
plural, that this divine counselwas like Yahweh's counsel, like
all the other gods had, whowould gather together and confer
with one another in order tomake decisions that marked
heaven and earth.
Isaiah wipes that wholeperspective completely away here
(18:32):
.
Look at what he says here,verses that we're looking at.
Look at what he says here,verses that we're looking at.
Who has measured the waters inthe hollow of his hand or marked
off the heavens with the spanof his hand?
Who has gathered the dust ofthe earth in a measure or
(18:52):
weighed the mountains on abalance and the hills on the
scales?
Who has directed the spirit ofthe Lord or who gave him counsel
?
Who did he consult?
Who gave him understanding andtaught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge andshowed him the way of
understanding?
And the answer is no one,nothing.
(19:16):
There's no divine counsel ofwisdom that God needs to hear.
No, he speaks it all and theyjoin in glad reflection of his
glory.
But they don't advise him, theydon't counsel him, they don't
teach him, they don't guide him.
(19:39):
He issues his decrees becausehe is self-sufficient,
self-existent, absolutelysovereign, and his understanding
is beyond measure, particularlyfor us In our Western world.
Skepticism has limited God totrain him as weak or uninvolved
(20:02):
or necessarily needing us.
And yet Isaiah here stands andthis passage stands among the
greatest statements in all ofScripture of the divine
supremacy of God, and here he isplaced in comparison with all
creation and he is above it andis beyond it.
(20:23):
But, as we'll see, he's alsoinvolved in it.
When we think about this worldand the precision of our
atmosphere and theelectromagnetic forces and all
the things that grant us theability to have life here, do we
(20:45):
think that there was just somesort of chance, random smashing
of atoms together that somehowbrought life and brought an
ecosystem that actually sustainsand engenders that life?
No, there's a living God behindit all who brought it together.
(21:07):
We think about the depths ofthe oceans, and here it tells us
here that he has all of it inhis hands.
He measures the sea in hishands.
Isaiah says in another place wehaven't even mapped the sea,
(21:28):
let alone understood how to holdit all together.
The scale of the universe.
Billions and billions of starslay out there, yet scripture
says that God calls them all byname.
We don't even understand theouter reaches of our galaxy, let
(21:49):
alone the universe, but Godgoverns it without effort.
When we think about thecomplexity of our person and
anyone who studied the bodydeeply just understands how
miraculous it is that's anintelligence beyond our human
(22:09):
comprehension.
All of this matters todaybecause we need to understand
who God is, because there areforces out there that are
tempting us to doubt God'swisdoms, to simply lower our
eyes down to earthlyexplanations.
But here we are to meet a Godwho has no philosophers to
(22:35):
inform him, no powers to rivalhim, no counsels to guide him,
because he alone is God and heis worthy of trust and worship
and reverence.
Isaiah moves on from that inverses 15 to 17 to talk about
Yahweh in comparison to thenations of the world Verses 15
(23:00):
to 17.
Look, the nations are like adrop in a bucket.
They're considered as a speckof dust on the scales he lifts
up the islands, like fine dust.
Lebanon's cedars are not enoughfor fuel or its animals enough
for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothingbefore him.
They're considered by him asempty nothingness.
(23:23):
Little Judea, little tiny placeI mean Rhode Island is big
compared to Judea right Aresurrounded by mighty nations and
have been for a long time.
The Egyptians, a longstandingforce.
They had just come through thescare of Assyria and its mighty
(23:47):
empire.
It was known for its brutalityand its widespreading campaigns.
And now here they are in thegrip of Babylon, another empire
that's going to span the reachesof continents.
But their past and theirpresent isn't just the only time
.
The future is going to be withthe Medes and the Persians, and
(24:07):
then the Greeks, and then theRomans ahead.
Each of these nations gobblingup vast territories, sweeping
nations into their control,engulfing people in their
(24:29):
relentless conquests.
And from a human perspective,all of those nations, in
comparison to little Judah,seemed absolutely unstoppable.
And yet Isaiah offers adifferent perspective.
What are they to you, god?
Nothing, nothing.
And he uses these comparisons Adrop in a bucket.
(24:52):
You ever wonder where thatphrase came from.
Well, it comes from Isaiah Aspeck of dust on a scale not
even measurable to the gram.
There's not enough trees in themighty forest of the cedars of
Lebanon to even gather togetherenough wood or to find enough
(25:13):
animals to even provide asufficient sacrifice to the
glory of this God.
They are, as he sums it up,utterly nothing.
Not just nothing, but utterlynothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing.
(25:34):
Today we live in a world wherenations are again exerting their
powers, and they're doing sowith increasing degree of
nationalistic fervor andconflict, and they're going to
continue to rise.
(25:56):
To continue to rise, and therewill be someone with enough
intellect and enough wickednessof heart to capture the sweeping
mindset that will lead nationsagainst nations, perhaps even in
our own area.
But there's a living, eternalGod that calls us to trust him,
(26:22):
even in the midst of all of that.
You see, empires, in order toexist, depend on human strength,
but God is the source of allstrength.
Empires expand by way ofconquest, and yet God has
expanded his kingdom by a simplemessage of love and life in a
(26:43):
savior.
Human rulers desire control.
Jesus said that he's come togive life, and life more
abundantly, and to set peoplefree in the liberation from sin
and death and judgment.
And so Isaiah is calling people, in these introductory moments,
(27:04):
before he gets into the deepheart of this section, to look
away from themselves and lookaway from Babylon and look to
God and to recognize that everyruler, every empire, every force
is nothing but nothing incomparison to him.
(27:26):
He moves on to the idols inverses 18 to 20.
And in the ancient world,victorious kings would identify
themselves with idols, becausean idol once crafted signified
the presence of that God, and sowhen the Kings commissioned the
making of idols, they wereshowing that they were equated
(27:50):
with that God and had the powerof that God and the presence of
that God, and that they wereelevated themselves as human
rulers into a place of divinesupremacy.
This is why Nebuchadnezzar wasso proud of himself in the book
(28:13):
of Daniel, because he felt thateverything that he had been
given was a sign and seal of theGod's endorsement of who he was
.
And so they would publiclycelebrate their victories by
taking the spoils of war and bybuilding the monuments and idols
(28:36):
around the public square.
And if you were to walk aroundBabylon you would see those
everywhere.
The taking of objects of worshipwere considered an act of
supremacy by the gods over oneanother.
And so, for example, when yougo to 1 Samuel, chapter 5, and
(28:57):
the Philistines there go tobattle with the people of Israel
, and the people of Israelfoolishly bring the Ark of the
Covenant into the battle,thinking that somehow that's
going to help them win the warbecause the presence of God is
with them.
They'd already bought into thewhole idolatrous understanding
and the Philistines win.
And what the Philistines do?
(29:18):
They capture the Ark of theCovenant, thinking our God has
beat your God.
And what do they do to showhumiliation to the God of the
people of Israel?
They stick the Ark of theCovenant in the Temple of Dagon.
Our God rules, but whathappened?
(29:38):
But what happened?
They woke up the next day andthey found out that their idol
of Dagon had gone, clunk and hadfallen down, and that's just
not a good thing when your Godfalls down.
So they're like they prop himback up.
They're like fix that problem,our God rules.
(29:59):
Again, they wake up the nextday.
He's got no head or hands.
This ain't good In the ancientNear East.
When you cut off hands and head, well obviously it means utter
defeat.
And so when they walked intothe temple of Dagon and it had
(30:23):
no head or hands, the Lord wassaying he is utterly defeated.
This wasn't just an accident offragile stone or metal that
happened to crack in some stressplaces.
This was God saying Dagon,you're dead.
(30:47):
And the message was clear Yahwehdoes not coexist with these
gods, he overthrows them.
And so here they are in thismoment of history and they're
surrounded by these idols andthey need to understand, in
comparison to Yahweh, what thesethings are.
I mean, they look big, theylook impulsive, they're made
with silver and gold, they lookremarkable and they've been
(31:11):
implanted with divine powers.
And it seems to have happened.
I mean, we're in Babylon andthey've captured our city, and
they've killed a king andcaptured another one, and here
we are in chains.
It seems like they're powerful.
Until you read these words, withwhom will you compare God?
(31:32):
What likeness will you set upfor comparison with him?
An idol, something that asmelter cast and a metal worker
plates with gold and makessilver chains for, and a poor
person contributes wood for apedestal that will not rot?
He looks for a skilledcraftsman to set up an idol that
(31:53):
will not fall over.
They've got to get a goodcraftsman and they have to get
good wood, because it's reallynot a great thing if your God
dry, rots or gets moldy or fallsover.
They have no authority.
(32:14):
Later, in Isaiah chapter 46,these gods are described as
burdens that have to be carriedby people, and in Isaiah chapter
21, he places a judgment onfalse worship by saying Babylon
has fallen.
The images of its God liefallen on the ground.
Here we're seeing a declarationof Yahweh's true supremacy.
(32:38):
These things are just craftedby hands.
They're not powerful.
They need a craftsman, theyneed a metal worker, they need
someone to purchase the wood,they need someone to build them.
It's absurd.
It's absurd.
What is God telling the peoplehere?
(33:00):
Look up, look up, don't bescared by them, don't capitulate
to them, don't acquiesce totheir demands, don't be fearful,
don't be despondent.
Your God is supreme over allthings, even in the middle of
(33:22):
Babylon, because idols will fallbefore him, nations will
crumble before him and kings arenothing to him.
And that's the next section inverses 21 to 24.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to youfrom the beginning?
Have you not considered thefoundations of the earth?
(33:42):
God is enthroned above thecircle of the earth and its
inhabitants are likegrasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavenslike thin cloth and spreads them
out like a tent to live in, andhe reduces his princes to
nothing and makes judges of theearth like a wasteland.
They're barely planted, barelysown, and their stem hardly
takes root in the ground when heblows on them and they wither
(34:03):
and, like a whirlwind, carriesthem away like stubble.
Yeah, nebuchadnezzar seemed likea great ruler for a little
while, and then he was dead.
Hitler seemed like a greatruler for a little while, and
then he was dead.
And you could name everydictator that you can think of,
(34:28):
and they're all dead Becausethey rose up in a whisper of a
moment and they were cut down bydeath.
But there's one man who wentinto the grave and came out of
it and he lives forever as Lordover all.
His name is Jesus, and hiskingdom will not end or fail.
(34:57):
And so here the Lord is tellingus not to invest ourselves or
not to be afraid of these forcesthat are in this world today,
be they governmental orideological, or even our own
personal ambitions or theconstructs and forces of social
media.
These things are nothing incomparison to God.
(35:18):
These things are nothing incomparison to God.
And then, last of all, inverses 25 and 26, the authority
of the creator over the heavens.
To whom will you compare me orwho is my equal, asked the Holy
One.
Look up and see who createdthese.
He brings out the stars bynumber.
(35:39):
He calls all of them by namebecause of his great power and
strength.
Not one of them is missing Now.
This was a particularlyimportant message in Babylon,
because the Babylonians werefull of astronomical and
astrological interest.
Their advances in understandingthe heavenlies has built a
(36:02):
foundation for our understandingand our society, even to this
day.
Their observations of celestialmoments were so precise that we
use a lot of their constructsin all sorts of arenas now.
But they believed that knowingthe stars ordered their religion
(36:23):
and ordered their governanceand ordered the future.
That's how they looked at it,and so they invested the
heavenlies with God-likequalities and and they did so in
very intricate and profoundways that we're still trying to
discover they put together anumeral system that recorded the
(36:46):
details of the celestialmovements and were able to
predict eclipses and planetarymovements and seasonal cycles in
a way we're just now doing.
They were able to track planetsusing a graph-based
calculations that are a lot likeintegral calculus that we learn
(37:07):
today.
They were able to analyze thecelestial cycles and to forecast
planetary movements to such adegree that we use those things
now for observational skill andfoundation and understanding.
But their stargazers used allthat to predict the future, and
we might laugh at that.
(37:28):
But just pick up a Wall StreetJournal or a USA Today or the
Washington Post and just jumpover to the horoscope section
and tell me, if we still don'tdo that, what's your sign?
Well, those 12 zodiacal signswere formulated by the
(37:49):
Babylonians and the Lord saysdon't look at creation, don't
look at the nations, don't lookat the rulers, don't look at the
stars.
(38:09):
Look to me, behold your God,because he knows them far better
.
He numbers and names all ofthem, and to name something
means to control it, and henumbers and names all of them is
why Isaiah says that, becausehe's got all of it understood
(38:32):
and he controls it all and hecommands the stars, and that's
why, in the New Testament, wefind this star moving people,
called the Magi to a place notto draw attention to the glory
of themselves, but to drawattention to the glory of the
newborn babe, jesus.
The stars point to the glory ofthe Savior, not to the glory of
(38:57):
themselves, and the ability toprotect and control the future.
Psalm 8, when I observe yourheavens, the works of your hands
, the moon and the stars whichyou set in space, what is a
human being?
That you remember him, a son ofman, that you consider him?
You see, the heavenly beingsare there for God's glory, not
(39:22):
their own.
And so the Lord here throwsdown a challenge, a challenge of
superiority and comparinghimself to everything around,
and he eliminates all rivals.
Nothing can compare, notnations, not idols, not rulers,
not celestial beings, and heeliminates all rivals.
(39:42):
Nothing can compare, notnations, not idols, not rulers,
not celestial beings, babylonianpower and culture.
Well, it's weak, it'll bedefeated.
It cannot be the strength thatyou think it is to cause you to
abandon God or to acquiesce toits control.
You don't need to deny the Lordand you don't need to round off
(40:06):
the contours of your identityin him, because he is over all
of this.
And so Isaiah, as he launchesinto this section, that comes to
a climax and we're just in thesort of rumblings of the
beginning.
But it comes to a climax inchapters, later chapters is
(40:26):
simply saying look up and hearthe word of a God who says
comfort, comfort, comfort.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort if you're still thinking
, in your despondency and inyour defeat, that somehow God is
(40:48):
not able because life isn't howyou wanted it to be.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort if you're looking on
social media and wondering whoyou are in light of those
strolls through Instagram.
You won't hear that wordcomfort If you're sitting in the
middle of a biology class andjust told it's all some freak
(41:10):
accident.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort If you're chasing after
that next paycheck in order tomake yourself feel better, not
just take care of your needs.
Political and cultural powers,materialism and wealth,
self-worship and autonomy,science and human achievement,
(41:34):
the identity of our person inthe light of those around us,
are just going to erode anderase the contours of God's
glorious supremacy over all ofthem.
Lift up your eyes, behold yourGod.
(41:58):
That's the answer.
Let's pray, father.
I pray for us that we'd keepour eyes where they need to be.
(42:18):
Lord, it concerns us because,rightly, we have enemies in this
world that are seeking tomeasure themselves up against
you and claim victory.
We want to hear what is theheart of worship, to proclaim
and behold the greatness of you.
(42:39):
And, lord, may we exalt you inevery way rather than, as some
are doing, simply reducing youto an accessory for human need
and ambition.
I pray, father, that all of uswould be messengers of this one
command behold your God, so thatwe might not give into the
(43:07):
demands or surrender ourallegiance to these false idols.
Father, we commit ourselves toyou and into your hands we offer
ourselves, and we thank youthat you so wonderfully embrace
the undeserving and that youcall to these people even in the
midst of their despondency,dejection, disobedience and
(43:28):
disillusionment.
You impressed upon them wordsof eternal comfort and hope, and
we pray in our generation thatwe might be recipients and
messengers of that same comfortand hope, that consolation,
which is found in Jesus Christ,and we pray this in his name,
amen.
Sacred Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah.
For those of you that are justvisiting or just recently come
in, we're studying through thebook of Isaiah.
We started it in September oflast year and we've been going
through it.
Just give me a second.
My computer has forgotten whatmy face looks like.
(00:24):
I think maybe that's telling meto get my beard trimmed.
There we go.
We started our look at the bookof Isaiah in September and
we're continuing on and we'llfinish it probably February or
March of next year.
As we study through this book,we've entered into a new section
.
As you turn the page fromchapter 39 to 40, you leap about
(00:47):
100 years forward, away from anation trembling under the grip
of Assyrian advance and now to anation in defeat, captured by
the Babylonians and torn awayfrom their homeland captured by
the Babylonians and torn awayfrom their homeland.
For those of you that are onour Google group, our NHPBC
(01:09):
Google group, I wrote out alittle introduction that expands
that a little bit.
And if you would like to be onour church's distribution or
Google group, just please letMicah or me or the office know
that you'd like to be so In yourbulletin or three email
addresses.
You can write to me or to Micah, or me or the office know that
you'd like to be so In yourbulletin, or three email
addresses.
You can write to me or to Micahor to the church office and
just request to be put on ourGoogle discussion group and
(01:32):
you'll be able to get all thosethings.
But here we are in chapter 40,where God is now speaking to a
people in defeat, a people whohave been captured, a people who
have been captured, a peoplewho have been torn from their
land.
And so, before we look deeperinto this chapter, let's pray
together.
(01:52):
Father, we ask that you mightgive us an understanding of your
word here, as you spoke to thepeople in this situation and as
you speak to ours, ourgeneration in ours, and we ask,
lord, that you might infuse uswith the hope and encouragement
(02:14):
and the promises and the insightthat this section of Scripture
provides, and we ask this inChrist's name, amen.
Have you ever had your worldcollapse around you, to feel
like it's moved and evendisappeared beneath your feet?
To feel like all those thingsthat you once counted on,
(02:36):
whether it be your routines orthose things that you considered
your or perhaps even yourpurpose to have been swept aside
and left disoriented left,confused left, dejected left,
depressed left wandering aboutin a world that doesn't make
(02:56):
sense anymore.
Well, that's exactly how theJudeans would have felt right in
this moment.
How the Judeans would have feltright in this moment.
They're in exile in Babylon.
They were known as God's chosenpeople and now they're a
captured people, not captured bythe living God, but captured by
idol-worshiping nations thatspeak different languages than
(03:20):
they.
In Babylon, their temple hasbeen destroyed, their nation is
gone and their hope, well, it'snot only dimmed, it's
disappeared.
There's strangers in this worldthat's now filled with idols
and empires, and they aregathered there, disillusioned
(03:44):
and tempted to believe thatmaybe, just maybe, that Yahweh
has failed them.
And in this moment they'regoing to be tempted.
They're going to be tempted toabandon Yahweh in discouragement
, or tempted to acquiesce to thegods of power around them.
And I think we can understandthat.
(04:10):
We're not in Babylon, we're notin captivity, but we're
surrounded by a world systemthat's full of powers, be they
political or cultural ortechnological, or even
scientific, that pull at ourloyalties to Christ.
We're constantly under pressureto deconstruct or to round the
(04:31):
sharp contours of our Christianfaith, to assume that trusting
God belongs to some past,simpler time and isn't something
that is applicable to thismodern day.
But Isaiah speaks.
He speaks to people in his time, to those that are just beyond
(04:54):
his time, as he does in thispassage.
And he also speaks to ourgeneration.
And he doesn't just whisper, heshouts.
And he doesn't just whisper, heshouts.
And he doesn't just tell peoplewhat to do, he tells them who
to look at, he tells them whoGod is.
And in the midst of all theillusions and disillusions of
(05:19):
the people in Babylon, we'regoing to find in this passage of
Scripture that God revealshimself as creator, as one
superior over the nations, onewho exposes idols for what they
really are, who humbles rulersand exalts himself over the
(05:41):
heavenlies.
See, this passage is not justsome old passage that we're
going to look at, and look at itwith some sense of nostalgia
and wonder what it might've beenlike back then.
It's a living reality.
Isaiah speaks of rescue and aswe go deeper into the section of
chapters 40 to 55, we'll seethat rescue motif brought out
time and time again.
And he's not inviting us toescape at this moment.
(06:04):
And he's not inviting us toescape at this moment he's
inviting us to live with hope inthe middle of Babylon, just as
he was calling the people hereto do so.
And he calls us to lift oureyes up and to look Behold your
(06:26):
God, because if we don't, oureyes are going to be focused on
the things here and tempted togive ourselves to them.
So let's walk through this text, verses 12 through 26 of Isaiah
, chapter 40.
And in it let us see how we areto lift up our eyes to behold
our God.
(06:47):
The first thing I want to do isjust rehearse some of the
temptations, and thesetemptations are going to be
coming to us from this wholesection of Scripture.
So I'm not going to turn to avery verse in this moment, but
just to give you a bit of asummary of the pressures that
are in play here.
The first thing we want to noteis these dangerous temptations,
(07:09):
and there's two of them.
The Judeans, who were in exile,faced a dangerous temptation to
move away from the faithfulnessof God and, first of all, to
abandon Yahweh, and first of all, to abandon Yahweh.
Here they are, in exile,crushed by defeat, and tempted
(07:34):
to shift their allegiance toBabylon's gods.
There were two, there are many,but there were two key deities
in Babylon.
The first was Marduk, alsoknown as Bel, and you might have
heard the name Belshazzar ifyou've read the book of Daniel.
So there's that name stuck in,or that name of one of the gods
(07:54):
stuck into his name.
That's the chief God who wasassociated with order and
kingship and creation.
And then there was NabuNebuchadnezzar.
You hear it?
He's the God of wisdom andwriting and prophecy.
And from an ancient Near Eastperspective, judah's defeat was
(08:17):
not just a military victory andconquest of Babylon over the
people.
This was a battle of the gods,and the gods of Babylon won.
That's how they would havelooked at it.
The exiles would have beentempted to think that their loss
(08:41):
was not just simply they didn'thave enough arms to hold their
city they didn't have enougharms to hold their city but
rather these two gods of Bel andNabu were more powerful than
Yahweh.
They would have thought, andhad been tempted to think, just
(09:04):
as the rest of the ancient NearEast world did at that time,
that these gods had empoweredthe Babylonian military to
conquer and to absorb theirhomeland, that Bel and Nabu had
defeated Yahweh, that Bel andNabu had destroyed Jerusalem,
that these gods had plunderedYahweh's temple and that these
(09:25):
gods had plundered Yahweh'stemple and that these gods had
captured their king.
And so they were temptedtempted to believe that Yahweh
was weak, that he was defeatedand that he was powerless, and
that they were right andjustified to refuse Isaiah when
(09:50):
he had spoken to them, and theother prophets when they had
preached to them, because, intheir mind, by losing this
battle and being brought intoexile, everything that those
prophets had told them was justa lie, because look what
happened.
But the problem wasn't thatYahweh had failed and he
(10:12):
shouldn't be trusted, becausethe prophets had told them that
the people had failed andweren't going to be trusted and
that where they were was aconsequence of their abandonment
of the Lord over the decadesand even centuries.
But there was a secondtemptation to acquiesce to
(10:36):
Babylonian rule.
There was the risk of justgiving themselves over in
complete surrender, to eradicateany of the contours of what it
meant to be a servant of Yahwehand to assimilate as best they
could into Babylonian culturewithout any allegiance to Yahweh
(10:59):
at all.
So, though they might haveprivate devotions to Yahweh,
their public life and servicewould look exactly like what
Babylon wanted, and they couldhave even quoted a verse to do
that Wrongly.
But Jeremiah told them inJeremiah 29 and verse 7, pursue
(11:23):
the well-being of the city thatI've deported you to Pray to the
Lord on his behalf, for when itthrives, you will thrive.
And so some of them, instead ofengaging with wisdom, would have
considered that a capitulationof full assimilation and just
dive straight in and doneeverything to be as Babylonian
(11:44):
as they could be.
Dive straight in and doneeverything to be as Babylonian
as they could be.
What's at the heart of this?
It's a misunderstanding of whoGod is.
They had rejected him based onfalse assumptions, rather than
(12:05):
recognizing his continuedsovereignty, even in their hard
situation.
Chesterton is reputed to havesaid it's hard to find the
actual proof of this, but he'sreputed to have said that the
effect of not believing in Godis not that you believe in
nothing, but rather that you areopen to believing anything.
(12:26):
And that's exactly what'shappening here.
By denying Yahweh, they'reopening themselves up to an
understanding and a lifestylethat is completely wide open,
and that's our temptation aswell.
We live in a world.
(12:46):
We're not captured by Babylon.
We're residents in it, however,and there are a lot of
parallels in the ideologies andthe institutions, and even the
political and entertainmentfigures in our world that are
calling out for our allegiances,that are promising to us
security and wisdom andprosperity, if only we give up
(13:12):
our spiritual allegiance to God.
Materialism and consumerism runrampant in our society,
promising us fulfillment, butalways leading to another
gnawing heart that's unfulfilledPolitical and national idolatry
that demand our loyalty andeven call us to capitulate to
(13:35):
them.
Technological supremacy istelling us, like Nebo, the gods
of wisdom, that those thingspossess all the understanding
that we need for life.
Celebrity and influences,figures in entertainment or on
social media, are telling usthat we need to be shaping our
(13:57):
values and shaping our behaviorsaccording to the contours that
they provide by way of their ownexample.
And then science exalts itselfproudly as the final authority
over all things that are trueand real, as though they were
(14:18):
the sole source of truth.
Until you get three scientistsin a room and find out how much
they have to argue with eachother.
Bel and Nebo they embodied thedominance of Babylon.
They embodied the wisdom andcultural supremacy, and these
(14:42):
were great temptations to theJudeans.
And Isaiah, in this section ofscripture, is going to challenge
all of that.
He's going to wash away thisfalse reality by reminding them
of who Yahweh is, of who God isand that he reigns supreme.
And the critique that he givesis not calling the people simply
(15:06):
to reject false idols, but toexpose how ultimately powerless
they are in comparison to thealmighty God.
And this is our answer today.
It isn't for us simply to beblasting the critiques of
(15:27):
society, exposing all of theirweaknesses in every way, unless
we do so in comparison to theall-encompassing supremacy of
God himself, who is the sourceof life and truth.
Who is the source of life andtruth?
And so what Isaiah has to sayis vital to us.
(15:50):
And as we go through thissection of scripture, there's
one thing that we're going to doOnce we've understood that
these temptations are here, iswe get a sense of understanding
God.
And so I want us to look atthis passage, and we're going to
break it down into fivesections very quickly Verses 12
(16:12):
to 14, we're going to see Yahwehas creator.
Verses 15 to 17, as sovereignover the nations.
Verses 18 to 20, as Lord overall in comparison to the idols.
Verses 21 to 24, that he is incommand of the rulers of this
(16:37):
earth, and verses 25 and 26,even stands above and controls
all the stars and planets in thesky.
What the people need is notsomething to do or something to
argue against, but a God tobehold.
And so let's behold him asIsaiah unpacks these comparative
(17:00):
statements.
First of all, that God is thecreator, that he is full of
incomparable wisdom andsovereignty.
Earlier in the book of Isaiah,in chapter six, when the prophet
was given his commission topreach, he was given a vision
where he went into the verythrone room of God and saw him
(17:22):
exalted.
But it wasn't just the Lordthat he saw.
He also saw some angelic beings, seraphim, who were surrounding
the throne, who were crying outholy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts.
And he heard them speak.
He heard the Lord speak whowill I send, who will go for us?
(17:48):
And that us word is reallyinteresting.
It's almost as though God isspeaking to a divine counsel and
saying we need a messenger onearth, and who's going to be
that one?
And so there might be sometemptation in reading that
(18:12):
plural, that this divine counselwas like Yahweh's counsel, like
all the other gods had, whowould gather together and confer
with one another in order tomake decisions that marked
heaven and earth.
Isaiah wipes that wholeperspective completely away here
(18:32):
.
Look at what he says here,verses that we're looking at.
Look at what he says here,verses that we're looking at.
Who has measured the waters inthe hollow of his hand or marked
off the heavens with the spanof his hand?
Who has gathered the dust ofthe earth in a measure or
(18:52):
weighed the mountains on abalance and the hills on the
scales?
Who has directed the spirit ofthe Lord or who gave him counsel
?
Who did he consult?
Who gave him understanding andtaught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge andshowed him the way of
understanding?
And the answer is no one,nothing.
(19:16):
There's no divine counsel ofwisdom that God needs to hear.
No, he speaks it all and theyjoin in glad reflection of his
glory.
But they don't advise him, theydon't counsel him, they don't
teach him, they don't guide him.
(19:39):
He issues his decrees becausehe is self-sufficient,
self-existent, absolutelysovereign, and his understanding
is beyond measure, particularlyfor us In our Western world.
Skepticism has limited God totrain him as weak or uninvolved
(20:02):
or necessarily needing us.
And yet Isaiah here stands andthis passage stands among the
greatest statements in all ofScripture of the divine
supremacy of God, and here he isplaced in comparison with all
creation and he is above it andis beyond it.
(20:23):
But, as we'll see, he's alsoinvolved in it.
When we think about this worldand the precision of our
atmosphere and theelectromagnetic forces and all
the things that grant us theability to have life here, do we
(20:45):
think that there was just somesort of chance, random smashing
of atoms together that somehowbrought life and brought an
ecosystem that actually sustainsand engenders that life?
No, there's a living God behindit all who brought it together.
(21:07):
We think about the depths ofthe oceans, and here it tells us
here that he has all of it inhis hands.
He measures the sea in hishands.
Isaiah says in another place wehaven't even mapped the sea,
(21:28):
let alone understood how to holdit all together.
The scale of the universe.
Billions and billions of starslay out there, yet scripture
says that God calls them all byname.
We don't even understand theouter reaches of our galaxy, let
(21:49):
alone the universe, but Godgoverns it without effort.
When we think about thecomplexity of our person and
anyone who studied the bodydeeply just understands how
miraculous it is that's anintelligence beyond our human
(22:09):
comprehension.
All of this matters todaybecause we need to understand
who God is, because there areforces out there that are
tempting us to doubt God'swisdoms, to simply lower our
eyes down to earthlyexplanations.
But here we are to meet a Godwho has no philosophers to
(22:35):
inform him, no powers to rivalhim, no counsels to guide him,
because he alone is God and heis worthy of trust and worship
and reverence.
Isaiah moves on from that inverses 15 to 17 to talk about
Yahweh in comparison to thenations of the world Verses 15
(23:00):
to 17.
Look, the nations are like adrop in a bucket.
They're considered as a speckof dust on the scales he lifts
up the islands, like fine dust.
Lebanon's cedars are not enoughfor fuel or its animals enough
for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothingbefore him.
They're considered by him asempty nothingness.
(23:23):
Little Judea, little tiny placeI mean Rhode Island is big
compared to Judea right Aresurrounded by mighty nations and
have been for a long time.
The Egyptians, a longstandingforce.
They had just come through thescare of Assyria and its mighty
(23:47):
empire.
It was known for its brutalityand its widespreading campaigns.
And now here they are in thegrip of Babylon, another empire
that's going to span the reachesof continents.
But their past and theirpresent isn't just the only time
.
The future is going to be withthe Medes and the Persians, and
(24:07):
then the Greeks, and then theRomans ahead.
Each of these nations gobblingup vast territories, sweeping
nations into their control,engulfing people in their
(24:29):
relentless conquests.
And from a human perspective,all of those nations, in
comparison to little Judah,seemed absolutely unstoppable.
And yet Isaiah offers adifferent perspective.
What are they to you, god?
Nothing, nothing.
And he uses these comparisons Adrop in a bucket.
(24:52):
You ever wonder where thatphrase came from.
Well, it comes from Isaiah Aspeck of dust on a scale not
even measurable to the gram.
There's not enough trees in themighty forest of the cedars of
Lebanon to even gather togetherenough wood or to find enough
(25:13):
animals to even provide asufficient sacrifice to the
glory of this God.
They are, as he sums it up,utterly nothing.
Not just nothing, but utterlynothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing.
(25:34):
Today we live in a world wherenations are again exerting their
powers, and they're doing sowith increasing degree of
nationalistic fervor andconflict, and they're going to
continue to rise.
(25:56):
To continue to rise, and therewill be someone with enough
intellect and enough wickednessof heart to capture the sweeping
mindset that will lead nationsagainst nations, perhaps even in
our own area.
But there's a living, eternalGod that calls us to trust him,
(26:22):
even in the midst of all of that.
You see, empires, in order toexist, depend on human strength,
but God is the source of allstrength.
Empires expand by way ofconquest, and yet God has
expanded his kingdom by a simplemessage of love and life in a
(26:43):
savior.
Human rulers desire control.
Jesus said that he's come togive life, and life more
abundantly, and to set peoplefree in the liberation from sin
and death and judgment.
And so Isaiah is calling people, in these introductory moments,
(27:04):
before he gets into the deepheart of this section, to look
away from themselves and lookaway from Babylon and look to
God and to recognize that everyruler, every empire, every force
is nothing but nothing incomparison to him.
(27:26):
He moves on to the idols inverses 18 to 20.
And in the ancient world,victorious kings would identify
themselves with idols, becausean idol once crafted signified
the presence of that God, and sowhen the Kings commissioned the
making of idols, they wereshowing that they were equated
(27:50):
with that God and had the powerof that God and the presence of
that God, and that they wereelevated themselves as human
rulers into a place of divinesupremacy.
This is why Nebuchadnezzar wasso proud of himself in the book
(28:13):
of Daniel, because he felt thateverything that he had been
given was a sign and seal of theGod's endorsement of who he was
.
And so they would publiclycelebrate their victories by
taking the spoils of war and bybuilding the monuments and idols
(28:36):
around the public square.
And if you were to walk aroundBabylon you would see those
everywhere.
The taking of objects of worshipwere considered an act of
supremacy by the gods over oneanother.
And so, for example, when yougo to 1 Samuel, chapter 5, and
(28:57):
the Philistines there go tobattle with the people of Israel
, and the people of Israelfoolishly bring the Ark of the
Covenant into the battle,thinking that somehow that's
going to help them win the warbecause the presence of God is
with them.
They'd already bought into thewhole idolatrous understanding
and the Philistines win.
And what the Philistines do?
(29:18):
They capture the Ark of theCovenant, thinking our God has
beat your God.
And what do they do to showhumiliation to the God of the
people of Israel?
They stick the Ark of theCovenant in the Temple of Dagon.
Our God rules, but whathappened?
(29:38):
But what happened?
They woke up the next day andthey found out that their idol
of Dagon had gone, clunk and hadfallen down, and that's just
not a good thing when your Godfalls down.
So they're like they prop himback up.
They're like fix that problem,our God rules.
(29:59):
Again, they wake up the nextday.
He's got no head or hands.
This ain't good In the ancientNear East.
When you cut off hands and head, well obviously it means utter
defeat.
And so when they walked intothe temple of Dagon and it had
(30:23):
no head or hands, the Lord wassaying he is utterly defeated.
This wasn't just an accident offragile stone or metal that
happened to crack in some stressplaces.
This was God saying Dagon,you're dead.
(30:47):
And the message was clear Yahwehdoes not coexist with these
gods, he overthrows them.
And so here they are in thismoment of history and they're
surrounded by these idols andthey need to understand, in
comparison to Yahweh, what thesethings are.
I mean, they look big, theylook impulsive, they're made
with silver and gold, they lookremarkable and they've been
(31:11):
implanted with divine powers.
And it seems to have happened.
I mean, we're in Babylon andthey've captured our city, and
they've killed a king andcaptured another one, and here
we are in chains.
It seems like they're powerful.
Until you read these words, withwhom will you compare God?
(31:32):
What likeness will you set upfor comparison with him?
An idol, something that asmelter cast and a metal worker
plates with gold and makessilver chains for, and a poor
person contributes wood for apedestal that will not rot?
He looks for a skilledcraftsman to set up an idol that
(31:53):
will not fall over.
They've got to get a goodcraftsman and they have to get
good wood, because it's reallynot a great thing if your God
dry, rots or gets moldy or fallsover.
They have no authority.
(32:14):
Later, in Isaiah chapter 46,these gods are described as
burdens that have to be carriedby people, and in Isaiah chapter
21, he places a judgment onfalse worship by saying Babylon
has fallen.
The images of its God liefallen on the ground.
Here we're seeing a declarationof Yahweh's true supremacy.
(32:38):
These things are just craftedby hands.
They're not powerful.
They need a craftsman, theyneed a metal worker, they need
someone to purchase the wood,they need someone to build them.
It's absurd.
It's absurd.
What is God telling the peoplehere?
(33:00):
Look up, look up, don't bescared by them, don't capitulate
to them, don't acquiesce totheir demands, don't be fearful,
don't be despondent.
Your God is supreme over allthings, even in the middle of
(33:22):
Babylon, because idols will fallbefore him, nations will
crumble before him and kings arenothing to him.
And that's the next section inverses 21 to 24.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to youfrom the beginning?
Have you not considered thefoundations of the earth?
(33:42):
God is enthroned above thecircle of the earth and its
inhabitants are likegrasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavenslike thin cloth and spreads them
out like a tent to live in, andhe reduces his princes to
nothing and makes judges of theearth like a wasteland.
They're barely planted, barelysown, and their stem hardly
takes root in the ground when heblows on them and they wither
(34:03):
and, like a whirlwind, carriesthem away like stubble.
Yeah, nebuchadnezzar seemed likea great ruler for a little
while, and then he was dead.
Hitler seemed like a greatruler for a little while, and
then he was dead.
And you could name everydictator that you can think of,
(34:28):
and they're all dead Becausethey rose up in a whisper of a
moment and they were cut down bydeath.
But there's one man who wentinto the grave and came out of
it and he lives forever as Lordover all.
His name is Jesus, and hiskingdom will not end or fail.
(34:57):
And so here the Lord is tellingus not to invest ourselves or
not to be afraid of these forcesthat are in this world today,
be they governmental orideological, or even our own
personal ambitions or theconstructs and forces of social
media.
These things are nothing incomparison to God.
(35:18):
These things are nothing incomparison to God.
And then, last of all, inverses 25 and 26, the authority
of the creator over the heavens.
To whom will you compare me orwho is my equal, asked the Holy
One.
Look up and see who createdthese.
He brings out the stars bynumber.
(35:39):
He calls all of them by namebecause of his great power and
strength.
Not one of them is missing Now.
This was a particularlyimportant message in Babylon,
because the Babylonians werefull of astronomical and
astrological interest.
Their advances in understandingthe heavenlies has built a
(36:02):
foundation for our understandingand our society, even to this
day.
Their observations of celestialmoments were so precise that we
use a lot of their constructsin all sorts of arenas now.
But they believed that knowingthe stars ordered their religion
(36:23):
and ordered their governanceand ordered the future.
That's how they looked at it,and so they invested the
heavenlies with God-likequalities and and they did so in
very intricate and profoundways that we're still trying to
discover they put together anumeral system that recorded the
(36:46):
details of the celestialmovements and were able to
predict eclipses and planetarymovements and seasonal cycles in
a way we're just now doing.
They were able to track planetsusing a graph-based
calculations that are a lot likeintegral calculus that we learn
(37:07):
today.
They were able to analyze thecelestial cycles and to forecast
planetary movements to such adegree that we use those things
now for observational skill andfoundation and understanding.
But their stargazers used allthat to predict the future, and
we might laugh at that.
(37:28):
But just pick up a Wall StreetJournal or a USA Today or the
Washington Post and just jumpover to the horoscope section
and tell me, if we still don'tdo that, what's your sign?
Well, those 12 zodiacal signswere formulated by the
(37:49):
Babylonians and the Lord saysdon't look at creation, don't
look at the nations, don't lookat the rulers, don't look at the
stars.
(38:09):
Look to me, behold your God,because he knows them far better
.
He numbers and names all ofthem, and to name something
means to control it, and henumbers and names all of them is
why Isaiah says that, becausehe's got all of it understood
(38:32):
and he controls it all and hecommands the stars, and that's
why, in the New Testament, wefind this star moving people,
called the Magi to a place notto draw attention to the glory
of themselves, but to drawattention to the glory of the
newborn babe, jesus.
The stars point to the glory ofthe Savior, not to the glory of
(38:57):
themselves, and the ability toprotect and control the future.
Psalm 8, when I observe yourheavens, the works of your hands
, the moon and the stars whichyou set in space, what is a
human being?
That you remember him, a son ofman, that you consider him?
You see, the heavenly beingsare there for God's glory, not
(39:22):
their own.
And so the Lord here throwsdown a challenge, a challenge of
superiority and comparinghimself to everything around,
and he eliminates all rivals.
Nothing can compare, notnations, not idols, not rulers,
not celestial beings, and heeliminates all rivals.
(39:42):
Nothing can compare, notnations, not idols, not rulers,
not celestial beings, babylonianpower and culture.
Well, it's weak, it'll bedefeated.
It cannot be the strength thatyou think it is to cause you to
abandon God or to acquiesce toits control.
You don't need to deny the Lordand you don't need to round off
(40:06):
the contours of your identityin him, because he is over all
of this.
And so Isaiah, as he launchesinto this section, that comes to
a climax and we're just in thesort of rumblings of the
beginning.
But it comes to a climax inchapters, later chapters is
(40:26):
simply saying look up and hearthe word of a God who says
comfort, comfort, comfort.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort if you're still thinking
, in your despondency and inyour defeat, that somehow God is
(40:48):
not able because life isn't howyou wanted it to be.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort if you're looking on
social media and wondering whoyou are in light of those
strolls through Instagram.
You won't hear that wordcomfort If you're sitting in the
middle of a biology class andjust told it's all some freak
(41:10):
accident.
You won't hear those words ofcomfort If you're chasing after
that next paycheck in order tomake yourself feel better, not
just take care of your needs.
Political and cultural powers,materialism and wealth,
self-worship and autonomy,science and human achievement,
(41:34):
the identity of our person inthe light of those around us,
are just going to erode anderase the contours of God's
glorious supremacy over all ofthem.
Lift up your eyes, behold yourGod.
(41:58):
That's the answer.
Let's pray, father.
I pray for us that we'd keepour eyes where they need to be.
(42:18):
Lord, it concerns us because,rightly, we have enemies in this
world that are seeking tomeasure themselves up against
you and claim victory.
We want to hear what is theheart of worship, to proclaim
and behold the greatness of you.
(42:39):
And, lord, may we exalt you inevery way rather than, as some
are doing, simply reducing youto an accessory for human need
and ambition.
I pray, father, that all of uswould be messengers of this one
command behold your God, so thatwe might not give into the
(43:07):
demands or surrender ourallegiance to these false idols.
Father, we commit ourselves toyou and into your hands we offer
ourselves, and we thank youthat you so wonderfully embrace
the undeserving and that youcall to these people even in the
midst of their despondency,dejection, disobedience and
(43:28):
disillusionment.
You impressed upon them wordsof eternal comfort and hope, and
we pray in our generation thatwe might be recipients and
messengers of that same comfortand hope, that consolation,
which is found in Jesus Christ,and we pray this in his name,
amen.
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