Ironside, Harry A: Studies In Isaiah 02 ~ Isaiah 35;-46;

Elihu is very clear about that in speaking to Job, you remember, where he says that God will not lay upon man more than is right. He will deal with each man according to his light and knowledge and the actual sins he has committed, but he'll not, uh, punish anyone more than his sins deserve. But this expression, she has received of the Lord's hand the double for all her sins is a kind of a commercial expression. Uh, when one, uh, uh, entered into a certain transaction, as for instance, if a Jew were in, uh, financial difficulties and he turned his home or his farm over to a creditor in order to meet his debts, uh, a, a, a, a, uh, paper would be made out, uh, giving this full information, and uh, one copy of it would be kept by the uh, uh, more the the one who had placed the mortgage on the property, and the other would be nailed up on the uh, door post so that anyone would understand that this property was now at least temporarily transferred to another. When finally the, uh, account was settled and everything was paid, then the notice on the doorpost would be doubled and packed up, doubled, covered over, and that indicated it was all settled. Uh, so when it says here she had received of the Lord's hand the double for all her sins, it is as though it said that the account has been fully paid. There'll be nothing more now, nothing more now to suffer, because the Lord will have forgiven our iniquity. That's, that's put before us in the very beginning of this section. That's the goal toward which the people are to look, and then in other chapters we're told how they reach that goal. And so in the first place now, we have a prophecy that relates to the coming of John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John applied this, you remember, to himself. When certain of the Pharisees came and said, art thou Messiah? He said, I'm not. Art thou that prophet, that is the one spoken of by Moses who said, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things. He said, I am not. Well, then they said, if thou art not Messiah and thou art not that prophet, who art thou and why baptizeth thou? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Thus he applied to himself these words of Isaiah. Well, now, as we go on in the chapter, we read the voice said, cry. God is sending his messenger, and he says to his messenger, now cry, cry aloud, give out my message. And then the a- question comes back, what shall I cry? And the answer is, all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Well, now, what is the comforting about that? Comfort ye my people. And the voice said, cry. And I said, what will I cry? What will I cry to comfort the people of God? Why, he says, tell them that all flesh is grass. Tell them they're good for nothing. Tell them they're just a lot of poor, helpless sinners. All flesh is grass. And tell them with nothing to glory, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass, and the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. Tell them that. Well, is there anything comforting about that? Well, it's the first thing I need to know. If I do not learn the lesson of my utter helplessness, I'll never turn to God for salvation. If I think that I can save myself, I'm not going to avail myself of the provision that God has made for my salvation. And so he says, tell them that all flesh is wrapped, but tell them that the word of the Lord endureth forever. And the Apostle Peter, you'll remember, quotes this in the first chapter of First Peter, and he gives this comment on it. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. And so, after all, it's a gospel message that comes before us. The word of the Lord that endures forever is the good tidings of the gospel. I want to, uh, my wife take up from here and give me a few verses to get a new start. Jenny was nine. O Zion that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his voice before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Now you see, immediately following this word, the word of the Lord endureth forever, with which Peter links the message of the gospel, you have the message, uh, uh, how's that start again, but Zion? Just gone to me. O Zion that, O Zion that bringeth good tidings. Good tidings? Well, that is the gospel, you see. But it's not the gospel exactly as we know it today. It's not the gospel of the grace of God in its fullness that is now proclaimed, but it's the gospel of the kingdom. It's identical with that which will be proclaimed in the coming day, just before the king himself appears. And of course, it was also applicable to the days when John the Baptist came, because he came proclaiming the good news of the king who is coming. And when the Lord Jesus actually came, he took the very place spoken of by here, uh, spoken of here by Isaiah. It's, uh, he comes as a shepherd. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd that layeth down his life for the sheep. And so as the shepherd, he's pictured here in the good news that God brings to Israel, and the shepherd carrying the lambs in his bosom and gently leading the flock, gently leading those with young. Uh, I've no doubt that, uh, some of you have have used this passage, uh, at times when it was very helpful. I've often found it helpful if used, uh, carefully when I was, uh, uh, officiating at the funeral service of a little child, particularly a little child whose parents hadn't perhaps yet come to a definite confession of Christ. Of course, one has to be very, very careful at such a time because hearts are torn and bleeding, and you don't want to add to their pain and sorrow by saying things that are harsh or anything like that. I remember a friend of mine who thought he had to be terribly faithful, and because he was asked to conduct the funeral of a young man who had led a very desolate, wicked life and died in a drunken spree. He stood over the coffin with the poor, broken-hearted father and mother there. He said, my friends, we're looking down today on the body of a young man whose soul is now in hell, in torments. And he went on to enlarge and enlarge. The wonder the poor mother didn't drop to the ground in a faint, and of- and almost a wonder that the father didn't get up and try to give him a beating for talking like that at a funeral time. That's no time for that kind of thing. How does anybody know? How does anybody know that the Lord hadn't spoken to that young man even in his very last moments, and that, that he may not have looked up to God and been saved? We can't pronounce on people. Only God can do that. It's not for us to do it. But I've, I've known times when this passage I've found very helpful. I, I think even now, the time when a, a dear little one had been taken away, the father and mother had not come out for Christ, and I just told a simple little story at the funeral. I said, you know, it's hard for us to understand why God would take a little one like this, why he would entrust these dear parents with this precious little treasure for just a few years and then take her away. And I said, reminds me of the story of the shepherd who was leading his flock down through the pasture, and they came to a fordable creek, and he wanted to lead them across to the other side, and he stepped down into the water and called them, but they came to the edge of the water, and they wouldn't, they wouldn't come in. They just remained, they refused to come any farther. And so then the shepherd turned back, and he picked up one little lamb and another little lamb, and he took them in his arms, and then he stepped down into the water, and the mother sheep came behind, bleating for the little ones. And as he walked out into the water with these little lambs in his arms, the mother sheep, both of them, followed him, and then in a moment the whole flock followed. They all went through the water to the other side. And so I just tried to point out to these dear friends as kindly and tenderly as I could, that perhaps the Lord has taken this darling little one to draw your hearts out to himself, to give you to know him as the good shepherd. And God used that message that day for the salvation of both the father and the mother. And I think that's a b- it's a beautiful picture we have here. He'll carry the lambs in his bosom, and he'll gently lead those with young. And yet this one who comes to us so tenderly as the Good Shepherd, a real man, a man i- i- in absolute holiness, tender, compassionate, loving, is the omnipotent God, the creator of the ends of the earth. And so, as we go on into the chapter, we hear God himself speaking in power and majesty, putting himself in contrast as we follow the connection with the idols of the heathen to whom many of the people of Israel had turned. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord that creates all the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. The connection, the verses omitted, which you, of course, will read, show clearly that it's the same blessed one, the shepherd of Israel, who is speaking here as the creator of the heavens, as the one of omnipotent power and, uh, omniscient wisdom. And he has a tender interest in everyone, and we find our blessing as we learn to wait upon him. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Natural strength may fail, the youths will faint and grow weary, but you young fellas, with all your vigor and strength, how easily you can be, your, your, your strength can fail if you just depended on yourself when it came to the hour of trial and temptation. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. An old Puritan commentator suggested on this that you have three kinds of Christians here. Well, of course, in the Old Testament, you don't have Christians in the proper sense at all, but he meant children of God. He said the, the, the, uh, young believers are pictured as mounting up on wings as eagles. They're great high flyers, these young folks who've just recently been converted. And then those who've gone on a while, why, they, uh, they, uh, run, they run and don't faint. And then the old Christians, they've got down to where they walk. They don't do any high flying or running, but they walk quietly with God. Well, there may be a suggestion there, but the point, of course, the prophet is bringing out is this, that our strength is renewed as we learn to wait upon the Lord. And now as we turn- come into chapter two, we find the Lord presenting, uh, Messiah, isn't it, as the, as the Oh, uh, God is still put in contrast with man's weakness. Uh, I can't go into the whole chapter because time won't permit, but my wife will just read a selection or two from it that'll help us to get the drift of it. eight. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. ten. m Fear thou not, thine with thee. Be not dismayed, for I in thy. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. thirteen. for I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. And fifteen. behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shall thresh the mountains and keep them small. You shall make the hills as fat. See, all these are promises made to Israel when they're restored to him, but they follow the account of the majesty of God, and it's man in his weakness depending on the infinitely strong one. This all, this comes in as a kind of a preface before Jehovah points out the folly of turning to senseless idols who are absolutely unable to help. You notice the expression here, Abraham, my friend. Now that's the passage referred to in the New Testament, where we read that Abraham is called the friend of God. What a wonderful thing for God to say of any man, my friend. And the Lord Jesus, you remember, said to his disciples, I've not, henceforth, I've not called you servants, I've called you friends. For the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. The servant is to do what he's told. It's not for him to ask, why do I do this, but just because he's told to do it. But the, to the friend, one unburdens his heart, and the Lord speaks of Abraham, my friend. You remember how he took into his confidence in regard to Sodom's judgment and so on. And so, uh, all the way through, God delights to open up his mind to his friends. And, uh, the prophetic scriptures are just that. They're opening up of God's truth that his friends may enter into and understand that which he is about to do. This expression that w- concerning Israel, that God is going to make them a sharp threshing instruments with teeth, uh, points on to the great harvest of the last days, when Israel, a remnant of Israel restored to the Lord, will be used of him to bring many down before him in repentance and lead them to put faith in the message that they proclaim. And you and I, surely, as servants of Christ, we need to be sharp, threshing instruments with teeth. I think, you know, a lot of preaching hasn't, uh, much teeth to it. Uh, it wouldn't, uh, hurt anybody. It's just, uh, now don't misunderstand. I said a moment ago, we need to be careful about people's feelings. But on the other hand, what I'm trying to say now is that we should be faithful in pointing out the wickedness of mankind and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that men may realize where they stand before God. So we need to have teeth in our preaching. A lot of preaching is just absolutely powerless and colorless, and saved or unsaved can sit and listen to it and enjoy it. I think I've mentioned before the young man who came to his pastor who was resigning to accept another church. He had been called to a sphere of greater usefulness, that is a church with a bigger salary. And, uh, so he left the one where he was serving, and when he was saying goodbye to his flock, one young man came up to him and he said, well, pastor, I'm awfully sorry that you're leaving us. When you came here three years ago, I was a young man who didn't care for God, man, or the devil. But now, since I've listened to your beautiful sermons, I've learned to love them all. And that's the, that's the kind of thing you get in many places. That's preaching without teeth. But God would have his servants as sharp threshing instruments with teeth. Well, now we come into chapter, uh, forty two and we have Messiah brought before us. So now God carries his people on to the time. He's already spoken of the, uh, forerunner, the voice crying in the wilderness. Now we have Messiah himself presented. He's going to take this up fuller in the next section, but he comes here in order that Israel may have the program of God before them and realize what folly it is to turn away from the living and true God to their senseless idols. This passage is definitely referred to in the New Testament as prophetic of our Lord. One four. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his lot. You remember how this is definitely referred to in the New Testament. He shall not bruise, break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. Wherever there's the least evidence of the heart's desire to turn to God, he quickens it and encourages it and leads people on into full assurance of faith at last. The, uh, uh, the, the characteristics of the Lord's ministry here are, uh, worth our consideration. You know, I think that we're apt sometimes to go to ex- well, we are apt to go to extremes on one side or the other. Either we, uh, don't like to talk to anybody about their souls, we don't do any personal work, we don't pay any attention, no matter what people may say or do, except to preach from the platform. Or else, on the other hand, we're inclined to be very obtrusive and very self-assertive and, uh, call people down ruthlessly and do many things that are hardly in keeping with that, uh, Christian culture which we ought to manifest. But this passage did a lot for me when I was a young man. You see, I began my ministry as a Salvation Army officer, and, uh, sixty years ago, the Salvation Army was a mighty power for good in this country. It's just dwindled down and down and down. We used to march the streets of San Francisco in processions of over a thousand with two or three big brass bands, and we were winning hundreds of souls to Christ, but little by little the organization got away from all that. Now it's almost, uh, just a great charitable organization. But we were inclined, perhaps, to go to two great extremes in our intense earnestness, do things that possibly were not wise, and maybe instead of impressing people for God, impressed them with our own, uh, well, what shall I say, made us think, made them think we were a lot of crazy folk or something like that. I'll just mention myself, you know. I was so under the, uh, power of legality that I, I felt guilty if I ever rode in a streetcar and I didn't immediately get up and begin to give my testimony. I'd just get to my feet as soon as we left the corner and say, friends, I want to give my testimony for Jesus Christ, and I want to tell you how God saved me and so on, and I'd have the conductor coming after me, here, sit down. We didn't ha- we didn't ask you to come in here to conduct a church service, and all sorts of things. Then I sometimes, I'm afraid I was rather rude to him. I'd say, well, I'd sit down, I'll sit down if you say so, but you'll have to answer the judgment bar of God for trying to keep these people from hearing the gospel. I did the same thing in a railroad train, if I traveled in a railroad train. As soon as we got away from the station, I'd get up and turn around, face the people, and begin to give them a test, and I felt I had to do it. I felt if I didn't do it, that I'd be responsible for the loss of their souls. And I used to do a lot of things like that that were rude, and I didn't realize it. I remember the last time I ever got up in a railroad train like that to give my testimony. I just got well started when a big fat Roman Catholic priest, and I don't like fat men. A big fat Roman Catholic priest jumped to his feet, and he says, what's this? What's this? Have I got to be insulted when I paid my ticket for a seat here in a railroad train, and I got to sit in a Protestant service? Where's the conductor? Where's the conductor? And he brought the conductor, and the conductor said, young man, you can't do this. You've no right to interfere with other people's religion when you're riding in a railroad train. And so I had to sit down. I felt properly squelched. Well, you know, it used, it bothered me. I, the devil just, he either tries to keep you quiet or else he tries to just, uh, run you ragged with the legality, making you think you've got to do things all the time that are unreasonable. And you know, the thing that delivered me at last and that showed me that, uh, there was a, a golden mean between indifference and rudeness, uh, was this very passage. What does it say of the Lord Jesus? He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall his voice be heard in the streets. He went through his service here for God in such a restful, quiet way. If people came to him and wanted to know how to get eternal life or how to, how to be saved, he was always ready to meet them, and he sought out the lost as the woman at the well and so on, but you never find him doing anything that's rude or that's boisterous or that's uncouth. He was truly God's gentle man. I was rather shocked when I first heard that expression applied to him. I picked up a, an old history of the world, a little volume in black letter, uh, in the city of London some years ago, uh, that was published the way back in sixteen hundred and something, and it was most interesting to read it. And when it came down to the, uh, uh, days of the Roman Empire and, uh, Augustus Caesar and, uh, so on, it said, in his days there was born in Bethlehem of Judea that goodly gentleman, Jesus Christ. I was so surprised to see the Lord referred to in that way. There was born that goodly gentleman, Jesus Christ. And then as I meditated on it, I thought, well, why shouldn't that epithet be applied to him? What is a gentleman? A gentle man, a gracious man, and Jesus was all of that, always gentle, gracious, tender, and even when rebuking sin sternly, still he never did anything that was boisterous or that made him seem uncouth. You know, people have different ideas of gentlemen, of course, in our country. We think of any gracious, uh, man as a gentle man, gentleman. But, uh, over in Great Britain, they're funny ideas. When the Moody Church was still in debt, I was over there, and, uh, a lady said to me when I was at a dinner party one day, said, Doctor, how much are you still owing on the church? I said, one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. She said, well, how much was owing when you came in? I said, three hundred and seventy five thousand. and you've got two hundred thousand paid off. Yes. Well, now she said, uh, I wish you could see Mr. So-and-so. I think he'd give you a good donation toward that. Oh, I said, I wouldn't think of a, expect a man over here in England to pay for a church in America. We get plenty of money there if I can only dig it out of him. And, uh, well, but she said, I think he'd be glad to do it. He has a lot of money, and I noticed the other day he gave fifty thousand pounds to the China Inland Mission. Well, I said, uh, how d- what does he do? She says, what do you mean, what's he do? Well, how does he earn his money? What does he work at? Work? Oh, she said, he doesn't work, he's a gentleman. Oh. I said, is that what you, is that what you call them here? I said, we have a lot of people in America who don't work, we call them hobos. Well, there's a, there's a difference of opinion, you know, as to what is meant by working. Well, here, I'm getting off the track. Come on. Let me go on. Yeah. Now in forty three we have the Lord's gracious care of Israel continued. See how wonderfully he enters into their sorrows, the opening message. And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, I have redeemed. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. And so, as we go on into this chapter, we find the Lord expressing his gracious care of his people, and then, uh, it's right here that he, uh, brings Israel before us as his witnesses, isn't it? Yes. Yes. Now, just before my wife reads that, let me say this word. We have a group of people today who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. Where did they get that idea of calling themselves Jehovah's Witnesses? Well, right from this chapter, right from this chapter where Jehovah said to Israel, ye are my witnesses. Just get the connection here. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall that that there be after me. The Thirteen. yea, before the day was, I am he. You see, the Lord turns to Israel and he says, you are my witnesses. And this is true of Israel, whether they're obedient to him or disobedient, whether they're in the land or out of the land, whether they're keeping the law or breaking the law. Because God has given his testimony through Moses and other prophets, showing just how he was going to deal with this people of Israel down through the centuries. The blessings that would be theirs if they walked in obedience, the curses and judgments that would come upon them if they were disobedient. History shows the truth of what God has declared, and therefore Israel is God's witness to the truth of his word. You've often heard the familiar story of the, uh, instance where Frederick the Great, who had been listening to Voltaire and was all tangled up with agnostic ideas, turned to one of his court chaplains and said, Chaplain, if your Bible is true, it ought to be capable of very clear and succinct witness proof. Generally, when I ask for proof that the Bible is true, I'm handed some great big, uh, dry scholarly volume, which I have neither the time nor the patience to read. If your Bible is true, give me the proof of it in one word. And the chaplain answered, Sire, Israel. And Frederick acknowledged that that indeed was the proof that the Bible was true. Israel, ye are my witnesses. And now from this time on, you'll find Jehovah challenging the, uh, priests of the heathen, the i- the priests of the idol- idolaters. He said, give us some evidence, give us some evidence, uh, that that that any spirit of prophecy is working in you. Tell us things to come, or go back and tell us things that have been. Explain the past, explain the origin of the world. They couldn't do it, but God has done all these things. The spirit of prophecy is the proof that the Bible is actually the word of the living God. So he says, ye are my witnesses, says the Lord. Now, in the last part, chapter forty four— did you want something more in that? I'm depending a good deal on my wife's judgment because we talk this all before we come in, then I forget the The promise of the Spirit. Oh, yeah. God has fought it for. When at last Messiah, just a minute, when Messiah's day comes, then the Spirit is going to be poured out upon Israel from on high. That has not taken place yet, as we saw yesterday, that's not to be confounded with what took place on Pentecost, but the, the prophecy of Joel links with what we have here. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon my thine offspring. And in the eighth verse repeated, ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not him. I guess our time. No, then it's in the last verse of this chapter that we have the prophecy of King Cyrus. Uh, this is this, of course, as I've said in the beginning, that has raised the question in the minds of some as to whether this could have been written away back in the days of Hezekiah or some of the other kings. But when we take the Holy Spirit into consideration, we don't have any difficulty about that. Now, in chapter forty four, we have God continuing this theme in a very precious and wonderful way in the early part of the chapter, and then in the l- in the beginning, about the, uh, third down of the chapter, you have Jehovah's direct word in regard to idolatry. I haven't time to read the passage, but you read it carefully. It's the most interesting portion, and it it's really quite amusing and satirical as, uh, Isaiah depicts a man going out into the forest, for instance, and looking out and uh, uh, uh, finding a noble tree, and he cuts it down, and he lops off all the branches, then he begins to fashion it with a, with his tools, and by and by he has the figure of a man, and he, and the, the chips, as they fly, he gathers up, and the extra parts that are not wanted to make the image, and he uses them as fuel, and he cooks his food, and he says, my, this is nice. I've warmed myself at the fire, and now I've got a god to worship all out of the same tree. And Isaiah just piles on the satire and the ridicule in a most remarkable way. It shows the folly of idolatry. This comes in also, if you remember, in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. He uses very similar language in dealing with the idolatry of the people. Well, now this has been cursory, I know, maybe I've wasted a little bit of time telling you a few stories, but you know, I have to wake you up once in a while to keep you from going to sleep. And, uh, this afternoon we'll go into the next section. I hope we'll be able to cover it. Of one section embracing chapters forty through forty eight, in which we have Jehovah's controversy with idols. Uh, throughout this section, he is emphasizing his own power and majesty. It's strange, the thoughts that run through people's minds. I remember reading a lecture of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll some years ago, and he dwelt on this. He said, what a boaster this God of the Bible is. How often he talks about himself and what he has done and can do. Well, one could understand an ungodly man looking at it that way, but who in all the universe has a right to boast, uh, save the God who created it? And why does he set forth his own glory and his own majesty and his own power? Why does he emphasize his own wisdom and his own strength and ability? In order that men may realize the importance of living in touch with him and the folly of turning to anyone else. What folly for the people of Israel, after all God had done for them, to turn aside to dumb idols. Yet how senseless people are. While we read of different occasions in the Kings and Chronicles, even when the, the people of Israel or Judah went out against some of their foes, and they overcame them, then they brought back the gods of the nations that they had overcome, and they... had proved powerless to defend their own, uh, and yet the people of Israel were so foolish that they took them over. Uh, today men don't wor- do not worship, uh, idols of gold and silver and brass and iron, but every man who turns away from God sets up some kind of an idol in his heart. He either worships himself or he worships folly, pleasure, fame, something of that kind. I remember how aptly Dr. Philpott spoke when he was being introduced on one occasion. The speaker said to him, I'm happy now to present to you Dr. Peter W. Philpott, a self-made man. And Dr. Philpott said, I'm really sorry that our brother has introduced me in the way he has, so I appreciate his kind thoughts, but he said, you know, I've noticed that these self-made men all seem to worship their own creator. And that is very apt, I thought. Uh, if men, uh, uh, don't know, do not know the one living and true God, then the first thing you know, they set up the great God self and worship him. Uh, well, uh, we've already considered then the first part of this section in which God is telling Israel of what he has in store for them, of the redeemer that's yet to come, of the forerunner who will announce his coming, of the comfort that he has for those who believe his word to put their trust in him. And then just as we, and of the, and how he has foreseen the dangers and the sorrows that Israel must pass through, the deep waters through which they'll have to go, but he has promised that where there's real faith on their part, he'll be with them in all their sorrows and all their troubles. And then, in the very closing words of the forty fourth chapter, there is an abrupt change, and he speaks of one who is yet to come to be the deliverer of Israel from the power of the Chaldeans calls him by name, though he has not known him, that is Cyrus, king of Persia. Now remember that Isaiah wrote about, well, I suppose these words were written somewhere around, uh, the end of the eighth century before Christ, about seven hundred and ten, seven hundred and twenty, somewhere in there, and the Babylonian captivity was not until, uh, uh, about six hundred, so that, uh, over a century was to elapse before Cyrus, oh, more than that, the Babylonian captivity was to go on for seventy years, so that nearly two centuries would elapse before Cyrus himself was to appear. And yet God foretold to the people of his day that this man would arrive, so that when he did come, they would know it was the hour of Jehovah's deliverance. I think I mentioned here, or was it in some other place where I was preaching lately, I don't recall, but I mentioned that sometimes the divisions into chapters and verses come in the wrong places. We all know that it wasn't a question of inspiration dividing the Bible into chapters and verses. It's simply a matter of, uh, accommodation on the part of human editors who thought it would help us to separate the subjects and to find certain passages. And I suppose it has been very, very helpful to have our Bible divided in this way into chapters and verses. Uh, but on the other hand, sometimes it's misleading. Sometimes it, uh, it, uh, uh, keeps us from getting the full, uh, content of a passage if the passage is broken up in the middle. And it seems as though at times the editors have used poor judgment in making a break where they have. For instance, take the break between John um seven and eight. The last words of John seven are, and every man went to his own house. The opening ver- words of John eight are, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. They failed to translate one little word that should have been rendered stock, and they've broken a sentence right in two. Every man went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. He had no house to go to. He was the homeless stranger in the world his own hands and name. And when others went off to their comfortable homes that night, he went out to the mountainside, I suppose to the garden of Gethsem, and spent the night there, lying upon the bare ground, communing with his father. And so these divisions don't always fall right. Now, it's very evident here that the last verse of chapter forty four is introducing what you have in chapter forty five. And so I'm going to ask my wife to read it together, the last of chapter 44 and the beginning of forty five. Taking the subject of the son of from verse Caddicore. thus saith the Lord of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasures, even saying to Jerusalem, thou should be built, and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him, and I will reach the loins of kings to open before him the two lees gates, and the gates will not be shut. I will go before thee and make the thickets of places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in thunder the bars of iron, and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, did call thee by thy name and the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's place and Israel mine elect, I would even call thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. Now, this is the passage preeminently that the critics take as proof that the Isaiah who wrote the first part of the book could not have written these words, but as we said this morning, that's simply begging the whole question of inspiration. If we believe, as every Christian should, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, there's no more difficulty in the, in understanding that God could foretell the rise of king Cyrus and what he would do for his people, than there was in that he could foretell the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world and the redemption that he would accomplish, his first coming and his second coming, and the effects and results of his rejection, and then the results of his final acceptance by the people of Israel. All this was foretold ahead of time, and so in the same way, God, through Isaiah, foretold the rising up of Cyrus. It's good for us to remember just who this Cyrus was. He was the nephew of Cyaxares, who at this time was king of Media. Media and Persia were two kingdoms that were, as a rule, very closely related. Uh, they sprang from the same stock, and uh, it was through these kingdoms united together under the leadership of Cyrus and Cyaxares that eventually Chaldea was conquered, and Babylon, uh, became one of the chief cities of the Persian Empire until its eventual complete destruction. It's interesting to, uh, turn aside the secular history to get fuller information about some of these things. Herodotus has a lot to tell us about it, and, uh, the uh, and sev- and and there are other uh, ancient records that have come down to us that tell us how Cyrus and Siaksares entered into a um, combine, as we would say, and uh, marched against Babylon and eventually took Babylon by turning aside the waters of the Euphrates into another channel, and so came in under the two-leave gates, under the gates of the river itself. That's what's indicated here. So God foresaw all this, he looks ahead, and he tells us, he says, he tells, uh, Cyrus himself, I've called you to this. You see, one thing we need to remember, one reason why Cyrus and the Persians befriended the people of Israel was this, that the Persians, like the Israelites, were monotheists. They did not believe in idolatry. They did not worship idols. They abhorred idols. They worshipped God under the symbol of the sun, and uh, they they also believed in a great power they called Or- Orimin. Ormus was the name for God, Orimin for was the name for the power of darkness, and some people think of them as dualists, as though they believed in two great gods, uh, the god of light and the god of darkness. But it seems more likely that what they really believed was in one true and living god, but with a great adversary, uh, just as we believe in Satan, an adversary seeking to impede in every possible way the carrying out of God's counsel. Well, then naturally, a people believing in one God who was symbolized by the sun, they didn't actually worship the sun as some have thought, but it was symbolized by the sun, they would look with favor upon Israel when they, when he found that they did not, that they did not worship idols. They, it was because of idolatry they were sent down to Babylon, but Babylon cured them of idolatry. The seventy years that they dwelt in Babylon gave them such a thickener of idolatry that no matter what other sins the Jewish people have fallen into since, they've never, as a people, been characterized by idolatry. Undoubtedly, here and there, there have been Jews, uh, who have been idolaters because of ignorance and because of being brought up in i- among an idolatrous people, but the nation as such learned to abhor idolatry from what they saw in Babylon.