““Be silent before me, coasts and islands! And let peoples renew their strength. Let them approach; let them testify; let’s come together for the trial. Who has stirred up someone from the east? In righteousness he calls him to serve. The Lord hands nations over to him, and he subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, like wind-driven stubble with his bow. He pursues them, going on safely, hardly touching the path with his feet. Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I am the Lord, the first and with the last — I am HE [my emphasis].” The coasts and islands see and are afraid, the whole earth trembles. They approach and arrive. Each one helps the other, and says to another, “Take courage!” The craftsman encourages the metalworker; the one who flattens with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good.” He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over. But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my friend — I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said to you: You are my servant; I have chosen you; I haven’t rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand. Be sure that all who are enraged against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will become as nothing and will perish. You will look for those who contend with you, but you will not find them. Those who war against you will become absolutely nothing. For I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you, “Do not fear, I will help you. Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you” — this is the Lord’s declaration. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. See, I will make you into a sharp threshing board, new, with many teeth. You will thresh mountains and pulverize them and make hills into chaff. You will winnow them and a wind will carry them away, a whirlwind will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord; you will boast in the Holy One of Israel. The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I will answer them. I am the Lord, the God of Israel. I will not abandon them. I will open rivers on the barren heights, and springs in the middle of the plains. I will turn the desert into a pool and dry land into springs. I will plant cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees in the wilderness. I will put juniper, elm, and cypress trees together in the desert, so that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:1-20 CSB)
Basic Outline:
1. The challenge and the Challenger
2. The World’s response
3. Three examples of victory:
A. The chosen servant – the Righteous LORD who upholds you
B. The transformed worm – the Redeemer who transforms you
C. The Sufficient Savior – the Creator who restores and refreshes you
Key Verse: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 CSB)
“When men cease to believe in God they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” – Emile Cammaerts – summation by Cammaerts of G.K. Chesterton’s philosophy as found in his writings.
We always look for meaning in life. If life doesn’t have purpose and meaning, we seek it out. If it can’t be found, then we become despondent, depressed and lose hope. If we can’t resolve this dilemma, we lose the will to live and death quickly follows. We talked about this very issue last week. I mentioned how Viktor Frankl, a young psychiatrist in Austria, was arrested by the Nazis after their invasion of Austria in 1938 and was imprisoned for three years by them in their concentration camps. He watched as men lost sight of hope beyond the barbed wired of the camps and that caused them to fall victim to the despondency of life within the barbed wire of their very real prison.
But Isaiah wants us to see that purpose and meaning in life is more than just some noble cause or something bigger than ourselves. Purpose and meaning in life is not a WHAT but a WHO! In the opening verse of our focal passage, God puts out a challenge: “Be silent before me, coasts and islands! And let peoples renew their strength. Let them approach; let them testify; let’s come together for the trial (v. 1).” This is not a challenge to Israelites, this is a challenge to all “peoples”. He wants all people to discover that, like Jacob and Israel (see 40:27), God is sufficient for their needs and He will renew their strength when they trust in Him.
In this first verse, God calls all people to come stand before Him in His heavenly courtroom. He calls them to approach the bench, to give testimony as to their actions and He will judge their choices. It sounds a lot like the final judgment, but I think the intent is more along the lines of them hearing the testimony, weighing the facts and evidence and coming to a decision about God. This goes back to the real mission of Israel being evidence of God’s existence, purpose and power and calling all people to be God’s people by faith.
But just who is this God who challenges the nations to consider Him? Who is this God who wants everyone to weigh the evidence for His existence, the testimony regarding His strength and glory, the truth of His law and the righteousness of His judgments? We are introduced to Him in an interesting way, “Who has stirred up someone from the east? In righteousness He calls him to serve. The LORD hands nations over to him, and He subdues kings.” This God we are called to consider is moving and working behind the scenes to accomplish His will through “someone from the east”. While this person is not named here, he is named a little later – Cyrus the Great of Persia (see Is. 44:28).
Why would the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel, reveal Himself as a god who uses kings of pagan nations to achieve His purpose? If you consider that these words are written about one hundred and fifty years before Cyrus comes to power then you begin to get a glimpse of who we’re dealing with. A century and a half before these events happen, Isaiah is telling the people who are living under Babylonian oppression what God plans to do. He tells them how God intends to deliver and redeem them.
In addition, “In righteousness He calls him to serve” could (and perhaps should) be translated as “Righteousness [God] calls him [Cyrus] to His feet.” Cyrus is not some wonderful, righteous conqueror used of God, he is a servant who is being “stirred up or awaken” and used by God for God’s purposes. He is just clay in the hands of the Almighty Potter of the universe. If there is glory to be seen in these actions, it is God’s glory alone! This is His purpose, His will, His plan and Cyrus is only a servant at the feet of Almighty God!
Don’t miss this, the God who is sovereign over history is calling you to make a decision (or judgment – see verse 1) about His ability and His desire to deliver and redeem you from your sin. He then asks, “Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I am the LORD, the first and with the last – I am HE!” We are creations of this Creator, but He simply IS. We exist by Him, through Him and for Him but He self exists. We are given life by Him, but He is life and the source of all that exists.
“I am the LORD, the first with the last” – it is easier for us to look back at the past and see God at work, but it is much harder for us to see and understand what He is doing right now. If it is hard for us to see and understand what God is doing in us right now, it is impossible for us to see and understand into the future. But we can trust Him. If we can trust Him with the work He’s done in the past then surely we can trust Him with our todays, tomorrows and our eternity.
Though God has called all people to consider Him and to make a decision regarding His ability and His desire to redeem them, they continue to struggle with faith (see verses 5-7). Instead, they encourage each other to turn back to their old ways and worship false gods. They craft their gods using their own skill and understanding, then they pronounce “it is good” and fasten it with nails so it won’t fall over. You need to hear the irony in those words. They create their god, declare it to be good, then they fasten it with nails to keep it from falling over.
Instead of trusting the Righteous One who created the universe and declared it good and then living in accordance with His laws and commandments, we create our own gods, our own reality, our own laws and we define our own existence and our own truths and call them good. How sad is that? We create our own gods and then have to nail them down to keep them upright. But the Righteous One, the Creator of all things reaches down and takes hold of His own people and holds them up. He sustains them, they don’t sustain Him. Our strength and hope lie in Him, not in ourselves and our false gods, our selfish dreams, and our false hopes.
Now, we are given three examples of how God assures His people of the victory He is working out in our lives. First, we have the chosen servant. God’s chosen servant is not the winner of a beauty pageant, talent show or athletic competition. The servant of God is chosen because he is like Abraham, God’s friend – he seeks, obeys and serves God entirely by faith. Abraham learned that God walks with him, God keeps His word, God fulfills His promises, and He upholds us by faith.
Listen to God’s promise for His chosen servants: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 CSB) The idols had to held up with nails that men placed in them, but our God upholds us with His righteous right hand!
Next, we encounter the transformed worm. We’re first introduced to this idea not with words that degrade and discourage us as worms, but with promises of victory. Those who are enraged against us will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with us will become as nothing and will perish. Why? Because I am the LORD your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you, “Do no fear, I will help you. Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel, I will help you” – declares the LORD.
There’s nothing lowlier than a worm and that’s really the point; we are but worms in comparison to the God we worship and serve. Ah, while we may be worms in comparison we are loved by God like nothing else in all of creation. We must remember, our victory doesn’t come from our own ability for how can a worm be victorious against a foe? But our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel and He is able to transform us from a lowly, insignificant worm into a threshing board capable of dealing with the obstacles that block the path of obedience to God’s will. The people of God will not be prevented in following in the footsteps of Jesus.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:26-30 CSB)
Finally, we reach the third and final example of the victory that is promised – God will be our oasis in the desert of life. When we are parched and thirsty, He will be a spring of living water. When we can find no relief from our suffering, He will be like a grove of trees growing where nothing else will. This is the picture of a nomadic life in the desert where water and shade are essential to survival. In essence, He is everything we need. When we thirst, He’s our living water. When we hunger, He’s our bread of life. When we can find no relieve, He’s our sheltering rock or oasis of trees under which we refreshing shade.
When Jesus was faced with temptation in the wilderness (see Matt. 4) we are told that “the tempter” or Satan approached Him and challenged Him to use His abilities to satisfy His own desires – physical needs, fame and worship, authority and power – but Jesus found all He needed in what God had already provided, the truth of His Word. Is God sufficient for your desires? Is the truth of His Word enough to satisfy you? Are the things God offers enough for you?
Is God enough for you?
That’s really what this comes down to. Are we willing to trust God to deliver us from ourselves? Wait, what? Deliver us from ourselves? Yes, when it comes to our relationship with God we are our own worst enemy. We’re unwilling to see that we are in a situation that we can’t possibly do anything about. We live as enemies of God because we are unwilling to admit we are mere servants who need God’s strength. Unwilling to admit we are worms unworthy of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness but desperately in need of it. Unwilling to admit we live dry, empty, barren lives and we need Him more than anything else in life. We’re unwilling to admit we live as exiles in a foreign land and that we long for a home we’re unfit to occupy.
We started out this session in a court room hearing evidence and testimony regarding the truth of who God is. The word translated “trial” is really a word that means to make a judgment, a decision as to the facts and evidence in the case. God is calling you to decide, is He who He claims to be and are you what He says you are? Is He Almighty God and are you His servant in need of His strength, a worm in need of His transforming power, a nomad in a desert who needs life giving water and shade? It’s time to decide…
Will you kneel before Him and find the help you so desperately need or will you turn and walk away… satisfied with who you think you are and who you believe you can become all on your own? It’s time to decide…
There’s nothing that gives meaning to life, but there is SOMEONE who does… He’s calling you to come walk with Him, won’t you?
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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