This is what the Lord, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb, says: I am the Lord, who made everything; who stretched out the heavens by myself; who alone spread out the earth; who destroys the omens of the false prophets and makes fools of diviners; who confounds the wise and makes their knowledge foolishness; who confirms the message of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers; who says to Jerusalem, “She will be inhabited,” and to the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,” and I will restore her ruins; who says to the depths of the sea, “Be dry,” and I will dry up your rivers; who says to Cyrus, “My shepherd, he will fulfill all my pleasure” and says to Jerusalem, “She will be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Its foundation will be laid… “The Lord says this to Cyrus, his anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and disarm kings, to open doors before him, and even city gates will not be shut: “I will go before you and level the uneven places; , I will shatter the bronze doors and cut the iron bars in two. I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches from secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord. I am the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. I call you by your name, for the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one. I give a name to you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me. I will strengthen you, though you do not know me, Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; truth has gone from my mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow to me, every tongue will swear allegiance. It will be said about me, ‘Righteousness and strength are found only in the Lord.’ ” All who are enraged against him will come to him and be put to shame. All the descendants of Israel will be justified and boast in the Lord.” (Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25 CSB)
Note: The passage above is just a portion of our focal passage. I suggest you go read the entire passage, Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25.
Well, the decorations are coming down and the paper and boxes have been torn open and revealed their treasures to the recipients. Christmas always seems to take many of us on a journey of emotional highs and even lows. We anticipate what’s coming as we plan, shop and wrap the gifts we’ve purchased for those we love. The feast is now just a memory, an extra pound or two and containers of leftovers in the refrigerator. At this stage, it feels a bit anticlimactic and, perhaps, even a bit depressing.
But the only reason it would leave us feeling like that is because we’ve lost sight of the reason we celebrate. The celebration is not about the gifts we give and receive, the food we prepared and ate or even the wonderful time spent with family and friends. The celebration of Christmas is really all about the gift God wrapped up for us that night in swaddling cloths and continues to reveal to us over the centuries. The problem is that we tend to try and make that gift fit into the boxes we’ve formed about and around Him. But He just won’t fit!
In this week’s focal passage, we get slapped in the face by the reality of God’s sovereignty and our dependence upon and need for Him. The passage begins, “This is what the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb, says: ‘I am the LORD, who made everything”! He goes on to make disparaging comments about false prophets, diviners, the wise and their foolish wisdom and also the fears His people are facing about their future. Then, God actually names the one who will carry out His plan for Israel’s restoration – Cyrus, my shepherd.
Though I’ve mentioned Cyrus before, this is actually the first time that Isaiah mentions him by name – over 100 years before his existence. This is also the reason many scholars have argued that Isaiah was written by more than a single author. They simply do not believe in the predictive nature of God’s prophet and must find some way to explain away the supernatural nature of God and His Word. So, two “prophets” wrote these words, one who lived during the time outlined in the first half of the book and another who lived during the time “predicted” in the second half of the book.
While some of these scholars might lay claim to belief in God, their belief is in a god without supernatural abilities and who must exist within the limits of their thoughts and understanding. However, I believe in the LORD, the God who has personally revealed Himself to the world through His chosen people, Israel, and His incarnate son, Jesus. The creator God, the LORD who made everything and who formed us from the womb. He must exist beyond the limits of my mere thoughts and limited understanding. Otherwise, He’s not a god worthy of my devotion, trust, obedience and worship.
This is really key to our understanding, not only of this passage but of the entirety of life. So, we need to spend some time diving deeply into it and letting it settle deeply into us. Isaiah is making statements in this passage that challenge our world view and our self will, image and perception. In other words, what you believe about the world, about yourself, about others and our place in this world and interaction with it is entirely based on what you believe about God. Is your God big enough to break through the constraints of your thoughts and understanding and be worthy of your devotion? Is He good enough to be worthy of your trust? Holy enough to deserve your obedience? Is He transcendent enough to be worthy of your worship?
God tells us that He is accomplishing His purpose through His “anointed” servant, Cyrus. Generally, the word “anointed” is reserved for “the king of Israel” and the promised Savior. Yes, this is the Hebrew word “messiah” and it is being applied to a gentile, pagan king whom God is taking by the right hand. Using language that is eerily similar to what has been used to reference the coming of Jesus, God will achieve His eternal purpose through Cyrus. So, God is going to do things in ways that don’t make sense to His people in order to achieve His will in their lives and in the world.
I told you, this is hard for us to hear and even harder for us to grasp. God is at work in ways that seem at odds with what we know about Him. That’s because we’ve taken what we know about God and what He’s revealed to us about Himself and tried to contain it within our minds – the box of our reason and understanding, so to speak. But God is bigger, SO much bigger than that. He can’t be contained within it. If all of who God is can be known, understood and contained within our minds then He is very, very small indeed.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Everything, absolutely everything that has been revealed to us about God in His Word is truth, without any mixture of error. But not every thought or understanding we have about scripture and about God is true. In other words, we often misunderstand and believe incorrectly what God has said and revealed about Himself. This is the precise issue where the Pharisees stumbled – the rock of offense, the truth about who Jesus is and what He came to do. Their view of God was too small and it excluded the very idea that God could be at work in and through Jesus, the very Son of God. They had the infallible Word of God, but their understanding and interpretation of it was not infallible.
But why is God doing these things? Why is He delivering His people in an unconventional, unexpected and surprising way through Cyrus, a pagan king? “So that you may know that I am the LORD. I am the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. I call you by your name, for the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one. I give a name to you, though you do not know Me.” God has a purpose that is larger than Cyrus, but it’s even larger than Israel. He tells us what it is, listen: “I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me. I will strengthen you, though you do not know me, so that all may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is no one but me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5-6 CSB)
God’s purpose is to declare to the world who He, “so that ALL may know from the rising of the sun to its setting (the entire world – east to west) that there is NO one but HIM! That statement doesn’t just mean that He is the only God worthy of worship out of the many gods that man acknowledges. It means that NOTHING exists apart from Him – He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Everything finds life, its existence and its purpose, in HIM! He is the answer to all of life’s questions.
Our lives are really just a series of questions seeking answers. Who am I? Why am I here? Am I different or unique from everyone else, or am I like everyone else, in some way? Will I find someone to love and be loved by someone? Are we alone in the universe? Those are deep, philosophical questions and we all ask them in different ways about ourselves and about others. But we also ask simple, mundane questions about life. Will I be able to find work and support my family? Will my health hold up? Will my retirement savings be enough? Will the sun shine today or will it rain and be stormy?
God’s response: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I am the LORD, who does all these things.” Life is all about our ability to grasp, grapple with and come to a truthful understanding of God and our relationship with Him. I want to be very clear here, this is not saying that we live in a dualistic world. This is not a world where good and evil are equal but opposite forces vying for control of our existence and authority over the world. God is sovereign, righteous, holy and good and the presence of evil is simply disobedience to God and His will for our lives.
God is at work restoring His creation to its original purpose, to know Him, to worship Him and to give Him the glory He deserves. To deny that purpose is to deny who God is and what He’s doing. “Heavens, sprinkle from above, and let the skies shower righteousness. Let the earth open up so that salvation will sprout and righteousness will spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it.” (Isaiah 45:8 CSB) God’s at work causing salvation to sprout and for righteousness (right living) to “spring up with it.” But most men deny their need for salvation…
But God responds to them: “Woe to the one who argues with his Maker — one clay pot among many. Does clay say to the one forming it, ‘What are you making?’ Or does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isaiah 45:9 CSB) We want to tell God how our lives are supposed to look, what we’ve defined as our purpose and reason for being. But God asks, “does the clay ask the potter what he’s making?” Will the creature argue with its creator about its existence, its need for salvation and its purpose for being?
Finally, God calls for His people to place their absolute trust in Him and His plan for their salvation. This isn’t a negotiation. God doesn’t offer them a plan, Israel respond with a counter plan and God agree to a mutually beneficial, cooperative plan. That’s how you worship an idol. You do what you perceive is personally beneficial and effective, in your own estimation, of the worship outcome. The worshipers believe their idol/gods are moved and persuaded to do the worshipers will by their religious rites. We must be moved to do our God’s will, not the other way around. He is the righteous One – not us. He is the way, the truth and the life – nobody comes to the Father except through Him.
Just how BIG is your God? What you expect from Him depends on just how big you believe Him to be. What you will do for Him depends on just how much authority you ascribe to Him. We often limit God’s work and power over our lives because we’ve placed Him in a small box – the limits of our mind’s ability to comprehend and understand Him. Our faith is only as big as that box. You might not have caught my reference, above, about the scholars who believe there must be two authors to the book of Isaiah. They cannot bring themselves to believe in a god who has the supernatural ability to predict the future (or exist beyond time). So, they’ve developed a logical, reasoned approach to explain away the “prophecy” of Isaiah.
But when God is bigger, greater, wiser and holier than what you can possibly conceive or understand with your mind then you’re stepping into the realm of faith. That’s precisely where God wants us to live and walk with Him, by faith. While I can’t conceive of a God who could love me when I don’t deserve it, I have faith in the One who tells me He does. While I don’t understand His ways, I trust His heart. While I can’t see beyond the moment, I trust Him who holds tomorrow in His hand. Who are you trusting?
Many people today want to worship a god who will give them what they desire. The God we worship wants us to follow His will and to desire the things He desires. Since He’s our creator, He knows what we need better than we know ourselves. Who do you follow and worship? Do I understand everything He does or why He does it? Absolutely not. His thoughts are not my thoughts, His ways are not my ways (Is. 55:8-9). That’s why He’s God and I follow Him, not the other way around.
In conclusion, just how big is your God? Is He big enough to stretch your thinking and challenge your understanding. Is He too big to fit into the box of your mind’s knowledge and comprehension of Him. Is He big enough to challenge you to live by faith, walk with Him in obedience and to expect great things from Him? Is He holy and righteous enough to demand your obedience to His will and to walk in His ways? Is He so holy that you recognize your own sinfulness in His presence and need for a Savior?
Fortunately, He’s so loving that He provided what you and I needed even before we knew we needed it. “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 CSB) How will you respond to love that big, to a God that incredible? Will you argue with Him or will you surrender to Him? How you respond to Him will make all the difference now and when you stand before Him, in eternity.
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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