The God of Israel

The following sermon was preached at an Evening service on Sunday, 8th July 2007.

When I started university, at the beginning of term, I received a list of books for each class that I would be expected to read by the end of the year. And like any new and enthusiastic young law student I headed off to the university bookshop with my list and picked up copies of all the books I would need to read. I could hardly carry them homeThe . When I got into the house I stacked the books up on a table and felt a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. The stack of books was about three feet high. I thought to myself “There’s no way you’re going to be able to read, never mind learn and remember all this by the end of the year.” The task seemed to big, so overwhelming that for a few days I couldn’t face reading them at all.

But then classes started and I had to start reading them. And bit by bit over the course of the year I did read them – or at least large parts of them – and I ended up remembering enough to pass my exams at the end of the year and progress through my course.

I learned that the key to tackling a big reading task is to do it a bit at a time and break it down into smaller, achievable targets.

In the Bible, a book as big and intimidating as the Prophecy of Isaiah can affect us the same way. Sixty-six chapters of prophecy sounds like tough going, doesn’t it? The prophet Isaiah ministered for about 50 years from the death of King Uzziah in 739 BC till the death of King Hezekiah in 686 BC and his book reflects the length and depth of his rich prophetic ministry to the people of Israel.

How will we get through it, never mind understand it. I think the same solution applies: we need to tackle it a little bit at a time.

In the three weeks we’ve got together we’re going to look at just one chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah chapter 44, which is a very typical Isaiah chapter many ways, in that it deals with some of the themes that Isaiah touches on time and again in his prophecy, including the sin of idolatry and the redemption that God would send to his people. But this week, in the first section from verses 1 to 8, we see some important things about the relationship between God and his people, so I’ve called tonight’s service “The God of Israel.”

It has some great things to teach us about God’s love and grace and mercy towards his people, how he cares for them, and it shows us how God expects his people to treat him in return.

Isaiah chapter 44 comes in the middle of the great fourth section of Isaiah’s prophecy which runs from Isaiah chapter 40 through to chapter 55. These chapters, though I believe written several hundred years before the events, address that dark period of Israel’s history when the people of God were taken in captivity in Babylon.

We need to remember that the captivity or exile came about as God’s punishment on his people’s sin. And in that exile, the people thought that their God had abandoned them. They thought that since they had broken their covenant with God, he was no longer their God and had left them to be exiled or destroyed at the whim of the heathen rulers of the world.

The message of Isaiah chapters 40 to 55 is very much a message of hope and comfort. They proclaim that God will not abandon his people. They assure Israel, broken-hearted in exile, that God’s covenant stands forever and will never be cast aside. His great covenant promise, “I will be your God and you will be my people” which is repeated dozens of times through both the Old and New Testaments, is a promise that God will never break. Even when his people disobey and desert him, the promise stands and God acts to purify his people, destroying the wicked and blessing and prospering the faithful remnant of true Israelites. Because of His covenant, He will deliver them from captivity, free them and save them.

In these prophecies, following generations of Jews and later Christians have seen a deeper significance in these prophecies than the delivery of the Jewish nation from exile in Babylon, for beyond those events, the prophecies point towards the coming of the Messiah and God’s deliverance and salvation of his people from sin, death and punishment in hell.

I should probably just say in passing that my way of interpreting the Old Testament is very much in the tradition of what’s known as “covenant theology.” In other words, I believe that God only has one covenant people throughout history, and in the Old Testament that was the Jewish nation of Israel, and in this New Testament age God’s covenant people is the Church. I believe that the blessings and privileged position of Israel under the Old Testament have been transferred to the new Israel, God's Church composed of Jews and Gentiles together, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In prophecy this means that I would tend to see prophecies directed towards Israel as now applying to the Church rather than to the Jewish nation, or “ethnic Israel”. It’s a big subject and I don’t want to get bogged down in the arguments surrounding this. Just be aware that when I talk about Israel, I’m not meaning that Israel as a nation is now the people of God nor am I saying the prophecies apply to the Jewish nation today; they apply to God’s covenant people, the Church. They apply to us!

Okay, I think that’s enough background, so let’s have a look at this passage in Isaiah chapter 44.

You’ll notice that in verse 1, the first words are “But now...” This immediately signals a change in emphasis from what has gone before. The verses at the end of Isaiah chapter 43 are in effect a terrible curse on the people of Israel for their persistent disobedience.

The chapter ends with the Lord saying to his people in Isaiah 43:27-28:

“Your first father sinned and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.”

This comes after God lists a catalogue of the people’s sins including their failure to worship God, neglecting the sacrifices they should have made to him, and living lives marked by iniquity rather than righteousness. For these sins, God curses his own people and gives them up to a period of shame and reviling.

It is in this light that chapter 44 begins with the words, “But now...” which signals that God is not finished with his people. Despite allowing a period of punishment to fall on them, this is not the end of his dealing with his covenant people.

These words, “But now...” come as a ray of hope into what is otherwise a very bleak picture for God’s people.

It’s just the same for us today. By nature we are in a very bleak place regarding our standing before God. By nature we are “children of wrath” as Ephesians 2:1 says. We fail to obey God as we should and instead we disobey God’s laws. Everything we do by nature is tainted by sin, for none of what we do by nature is motivated by love for God, which Christ taught of course is the greatest commandment. We completely fail by nature at keeping the greatest commandment. So this “But now...” at the beginning of our passage is just as apt for us today as it was for the people in Isaiah’s day. Paul summed up human nature like this in Romans 3:10-12:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

And in Romans 3:23 he says:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

That’s where we stand before God unless we have God’s grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. That’s our “but now...”

Isaiah’s “but now...” is just as amazing – he’s making the same point in Old Testament language. Israel, you are a nation of sinners, he’s saying. You are in a hopeless situation before God if human merit or goodness is the standard of righteousness. Yet God reveals to his people in this passage the greatness of his grace and mercy that will overcome even the hopelessness of human sinfulness!

In effect the message of this passage could be summed up like this: Don’t despair Israel, despite everything, God has chosen you and God will save you. The focus shifts from the wickedness of the people to the greatness, the glory and the grace of God, and it’s as if the sun rises over the horizon and dispels the darkness in the brilliance of its light.

You might wonder, how could God in one verse say that he was going to punish Israel and destroy them for their sins and in the next breath say he is going to bless and save Israel. That’s a very important question, and until you understand the answer to it, a lot of the Old Testament will be quite confusing. The answer is that there are really two Israels. There is Israel the nation, Israel in outward covenant with God, which included every Jew, even those who were wicked in action and faithless in God. This is the Israel that God threatens with judgment. But there is also the true Israel – the spiritual Israel composed of those who have real faith in the God of Israel. This is the Israel God promises to bless and save.

Paul describes the difference between the two Israel’s in Romans 9:6 (NIV):

“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

And in Romans 9:8:

“In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”

Even in Old Testament times this Israel included a few Gentiles. In the New Testament this true Israel includes many many Gentiles as well as those Jews who accepted God’s Messiah.

Paul makes it very clear who are members of the true Israel in Galatians 3:26-29:

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

In Ephesians 2:12-13, Paul says to Gentile Christians:

“Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

And then in verse 19 he concludes: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”

In other words, we Gentile believers are members of Israel, the true or spiritual Israel, as far as God is concerned. So what this passage says about the covenant relationship between God and Israel is absolutely true for us here today as well.

Let’s look at the different things these verses teach about God and his people.

Verse 1: “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!”

Notice that as so often in the Bible, the foundation, the bedrock that everything else flows from is God’s sovereign election of his people. Israel was God’s people because he chose them to be so. It is God’s sovereign choice that is the ultimate cause of our salvation. Further back than that we cannot go. God chose his people before they were born, before the world existed, and he chose them not for any reason in them, but only because of his own sovereign choice. This is the doctrine of predestination that is so unpopular among so many people today that you rarely hear it mentioned in the church, but it is the very foundation of our salvation.

All the other blessings that God goes on to list in this passage, and absolute promise that despite their disobedience and sin, God will work to save his people from their sins, stems in history from the unbreakable covenant that God formed with his people through Abraham. But behind even that, it stems from God’s sovereign decree to save his elect in Christ, which is an eternal decree made before the world was made. In eternity God decided for his own glory, to choose for himself a multitude for salvation, because he loves them.

Back in Deuteronomy chapter 7 God comes closest to explaining why he chose Israel to be his people, and the same thing could be said of why he chose those individuals who make up his new covenant people, the church of Christ. This is Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (with Moses addressing the people of Israel):

“For you are a people holy [or set apart] to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and has redeemed you...”

You know there’s times when logical thought has to give way to theological thought! And this is one of them. In effect Moses is saying the reason the Lord saved you was because he loves you, and the reason the Lord set his love upon you is...because he loves you. He loves you “just because he does.”

To look further back that God’s eternal love for his people is absurd – he loved us from the first of time, he loves us to the last. And it is from that eternal, unbreakable, constant, stedfast love that God’s choice of his people comes and every other blessing to us flows. As Paul said in Romans 8, “nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

So verse 1 emphasises that God covenant people are a chosen people.

Verse 2 then goes on to explain that they are a specially created people: “Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you form the womb...”

Of course God is the creator of the whole world and the creator of every person in the world. But I don’t think that’s really what God’s saying here. He’s not referring here to our creation as human beings, but our creation as a distinct people of God, a holy nation, created to serve and worship God. How amazing is it to think that God made us, designed us to be the people are, formed us from when we were embryos in the womb to be the people we are and to fit into his covenant community to play a part that only we were designed to play! We really are formed by God to be people who will glorify and enjoy him forever.

The picture here is of God’s great skill in creating his people and his great care from the womb onwards to bring them to maturity to be his and to serve him. Now although we might think we’re all grown up, in God’s eyes we’re not. In this life, we’re rather like little toddlers to God – absolutely dependent on him for everything, learning all the time and getting plenty of things wrong, occasionally cute, but mostly causing a stink and a mess. He knows what we are. But he also knows that by the time we reach heaven, we will become the people he always intended us to be, and there we can really start living life to the full.

The fact that God has chosen and specially created his people with the utmost care leads to great words of comfort from God: “Fear not,” he says. “Don’t be afraid of me. You have nothing to fear,” God assures his people. After all you are my chosen ones, my special creation, my treasures.

In verses 3 and 4 God goes on to point out that not only is Israel chosen and formed by God, but his people are also specially cared for and blessed by God.

God’s really saying to them, “Look, despite what has gone wrong in the past, the future is bright for you, Israel. You’re my chosen ones, and I’m not going to go on cursing you, I’m going to bless you abundantly. I’m going to save you.”

The image of life giving water being poured out on dry ground would have been especially poignant to the people of Israel living in the dry, hot climate of the Middle East. Notice that again it is God’s unilateral action that is stressed: he will bless the people, he will pour out his spirit on them and on their descendants. He will pour refreshing, life giving water on the dry ground, which I’m sure should be taken both literally and metaphorically – that God will look after the material needs of his people, but also their spiritual needs. The symbol of water, of course, often has a spiritual symbolism to do with giving life, the Spirit of God and cleansing from sin.

In effect God is promising that his people will always survive and indeed thrive from the overflow of blessings he will pour out on them. His people “shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.” They will be strong with deep roots drawing on God’s gracious blessings.

This verse is reminiscent of Psalm 1:

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked...his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

And people like that, God’s faithful people who respond to all he offers them with trust and faithful, thankful obedience will thrive. Verse 5 describes what they are like. In one word it could be described as “loyal” or “faithful” or “true” or “committed.” God.

“This one will say, I am the LORD’s, another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, “THE LORD’S” and name himself by the name of Israel.”

These outward signs of loyalty and commitment symbolise a strong inner faith and trust in the LORD.

That’s the kind of people God wants and that’s the kind of people God is gradually turning us into if we are on the path of faith with him. So we will trust him more, rely on him more, love him more and obey him more as we grow and mature as Christians.

In verses 6 and 7, God again reveals so much about himself to us. First of all, he is the LORD, and we need to remember that when we see that name printed in our English Bibles, it’s really a translation of God’s special, personal, covenant name, Yahweh, or Jehovah as it used to be known. And in that name is summed up so much of God greatness and character, and most of all that stedfast, constant love for his covenant people. That’s the God we worship, the God who speaks to us in Scripture, the God who sent his Son to be our Saviour. Not some impersonal spirit or cosmic force, but a personal God with a personal name. And this God, Yahweh, is according to verse six, the true King of Israel and Israel’s Redeemer. He is the leader, the potentate, the sovereign king, the shepherd of his people. And he is the one who saves them by redemption, by paying the price to set them free. That price was nothing less than his own blood, because the Lord Jesus Christ is Yahweh, Israel’s King and Redeemer incarnate, made flesh for our salvation.

Then in verse 7, we see our God described as the LORD of hosts, which is a title meaning that he is the Lord of the heavenly hosts – the supreme commander of all the angelic armies and cosmic powers. The poet Milton described God commanding the angels in these memorable words:

“Thousands at his bidding speed, and post o’er land and ocean without rest. They also serve, who only stand and wait.”

The forces that can assemble at his command make all the armies and navies and air forces that ever existed in this world seem like a drop in a bucket. Limitless power, directly by limitless love – that describes in a nutshell the LORD of hosts that we worship and serve.

He is also the eternal one according to verse 7: “I am the first and the last...” Outside the realm of time, he is the ever living God. His very name proclaims it: Yahweh means “I AM THAT I AM” – he is always in the present tense – I AM – “forever I existed, forever I will existed, forever I will be me” He is always “I AM.”

And after all these wonderful and unique attributes of God, the Lord concludes by saying, and “besides me there is no god” as if to hammer the point home. Only God is god and only God deserves to be recognised as God. Whenever we get that wrong, we are guilty of idolatry – but we’ll be looking at idolatry in more detail next week so I won’t say more about that now.

Finally in verse 8, God repeats his words of comfort, “Fear not, nor be afraid!” And the reason he gives this time is because he is the sovereign God in control of everything that happens in this, his world and his universe. The fact that he knows the future and can foretell what is going to happen before it takes place is the proof he brings forward to show that he is in sovereign control: “Have I not told you from of old and declared it?” he asks. Of course the reason God can foretell the future is because God has already ordained what will happen throughout time.

“Is there a God besides me?” he asks.

That’s a question for each of us to ponder. For you, for me, “Is there a God for us besides this glorious God who reveals himself in the pages of Scripture?” Is this your God? Or does your god not fit into this picture. Is your god remote, or powerless? Or maybe you struggle to believe there even is a god? Or do you believe in God, but can’t accept he chooses who is saved and who isn’t? Or maybe can’t you accept that he really is in control of the universe and not us or blind fate?

Well there’s good news. This God that Isaiah presents to us, is a God of grace, slow to anger and quick to forgive, a God who will show mercy even to the chief of sinners, when they come to him in repentance and faith. This God is calling you to turn from your sins, to turn from your past and come to him and embrace the future he wants you to have – a future of blessing and salvation.

Our passage ends with the words: “There is no Rock; I know not any.” And very much implied in those words is a silent “except the LORD”. The kind of rock that is meant here is huge – like Ayer’s Rock in Australia, or Castle Rock in Edinburgh – a high place where enemies cannot reach and where those taking refuge can live in safety.

That’s the kind of Rock our God is. Not a pebble, nor a boulder, but a mountain. For he is the Rock, the Rock his people can trust and rely on, the one they can cling to when all else fails, the Rock that no enemy can conquer, a Rock that can never be broken or defeated, the one who never moves or changes, the one fixed landmark in an ever changing world, from which all other bearings are marked.

David wrote in Psalm 18:

“I love you, O Yahweh, my strength. Yahweh is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from all my enemies.”

May each of us know God like that in our lives, this night and for evermore. Amen.