Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 109th episode. In this episode I want to return to our study of the book of Isaiah. We are in chapter 43. This chapter shows us how God brought comfort to the Israelites as they suffered their afflictions under Babylonian captivity. This comfort is brought in the form of many precious promises. God promised that despite their suffering He remained by their side to support them and see them through it. These promises are backed up by assertions of God’s deity as opposed to the idols of foreign nations. God challenged the idols to measure up to His omniscience and omnipotence. God’s promises included deliverance from Babylonian exile but they also looked ahead to more important matters – the forgiveness of sin and salvation through Jesus Christ. But God didn’t just let the Israelites off the hook either. Part of His redemption was to remind them of their sins which provoked Him and resulted in their exile. He wanted to guide them into the necessary mindset to repent and seek His pardon and His mercy. It’s the same story for us today. God desires to grant you pardon and mercy. He’s ready to do it right now. But you have to be the one who seeks it. Let’s open with verses 1-7:
Isa 43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Isa 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Isa 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Isa 43:4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.
Isa 43:5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.
Isa 43:6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,
Isa 43:7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
So you can definitely connect this chapter to the previous one insofar as the previous chapter concluded by saying that Israel would not walk in the ways of God. The conclusion held that God’s efforts to correct them would go unheard because of their arrogance and stubbornness. And so you would think that these people were in grave danger of God utterly abandoning them or bringing them to destruction. But that’s not what He chose to do. Instead, this chapter opens with God telling the Israelites to let go of their fear because He has redeemed them Himself.
These people were unteachable and their fallen desires were insatiable yet God continued to love them and care for them anyway. It’s one thing for us to say and to understand that God is good. But God’s goodness enters a whole new stratosphere of meaning once we truly come to grips with humanity’s wickedness. Paul said that where sin increased grace abounded all the more. He means that when you come to grips with all the ways in which you fall short of the glory of God, then you can truly understand how miraculous it is that God loves you and desires a relationship with you anyway. James tells us that judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. He says that mercy triumphs over judgment. Understanding that principle is definitely a necessary precursor to loving your neighbor as yourself. You’re going to have many unlovable neighbors in your life – encountering the unlovable neighbor is when you need to remember that mercy triumphs over judgment.
I want to make clear that I’m not promoting moral relativism here. Moral relativism is one of the failures of Enlightenment philosophy. I’m simply saying that it’s possible to judge certain actions as sinful without condemning the person who acted. You can choose to extend mercy and love to the sinful person in such a way that will promote their well-being across time. That doesn’t mean blindly enabling people out of misguided compassion. But it also doesn’t mean leveling harsh criticism against a person so that you can advertise your own virtue and make yourself feel better. If you’re going to punish or correct someone you need to check two things before you do. First: Do you truly want the best outcome for this person? Second: Is your correction motivated by love or by something else like anger, envy, or revenge? If you thoroughly examine your heart you’d be surprised how frequently it’s tempted by wicked motives.
God had mercy on the wayward Israelites, but He went further than mercy for those who remained upright and prayerful throughout the exile. To these people His expressions of goodwill and favor were very high. Their experience was like the sun breaking through thick, dark clouds and shining all the brighter because of the storm. God brought abundant peace and comfort to their spirits because He cared for them. In the same way, God will bring abundant peace and comfort to your own spirit because He cares about you. So let’s unpack the elements of God’s care that are laid out in this passage.
First we get some insight into why God cared about the Israelites and why He cares about you. Remember, the Israelites were in a sinful and miserable condition. It’s not like they were all-stars at pleasing God. But God looked after them anyway because they were His own workmanship. Ephesians says that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. The Israelites were created and formed by God – both individually and collectively. He shaped each of their beings and knit them together as a people. He constituted their government and brought them together under the charter of His covenant. But it’s not just who they were at the moment – God also created who they were meant to be in the future. You can think of this in terms of yourself. Even at your worst moment you were still the workmanship of God. But He doesn’t lock you into your worst moments because He already knows who you are going to be at your best moments. And that version of you is also His workmanship. God will not forsake the work of His hands.
Another reason God cared for the Israelites was that He redeemed them. In His love and in His pity, God brought them out of Egypt and redeemed them from many other variants of bondage. If you have committed your life to Christ then God has purchased you with His own blood. He has redeemed you by sacrificing Himself for you and so all the more will He care for you and look after you. Israel was distinct and set apart from all other nations because God called them by name. God’s relationship to Israel was characterized by intimacy and concern – they belonged to Him and He had special interest in them. The same goes for you if you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You are distinct, set apart, and God has special interest in you as well as in your eternal future with Him.
God also cared for the Israelites because He was their God in covenant. This means He made a promise to them and God always keeps His promises. This promise was even reflected in the names God gave Himself like the Holy One of Israel. You often hear skeptics say that if there’s a creator of the cosmos why would he care about us? Well I’ve given you three reasons from just this passage. God cares about you because you are his workmanship. God cares about you because you belong to Him and He redeemed you with His own blood. And God cares about you because He promised you He would – and God never breaks His promises. Understanding the basis of God’s care helped the Israelites see the substance in His assurance to fear not. It helps us take that assurance as well. Whoever has God for them never needs to fear who or what is against them.
The next element of God’s care is its historical consistency – the fact that God has always cared. When you find yourself in a tough situation you tend to feel better about seeking help from people who have previously shown themselves to be helpful. Human beings are very good at tracking the status of each others’ reputation. This is in part why your friends will stop asking you to hang out if you repeatedly reject their invitations. God purchased Israel from slavery during the Exodus in Egypt. The cost of Israelite freedom was Egyptians suffering one plague after another. Their first-born were slain during the Passover and their warriors were drowned in the Red Sea. It wasn’t as if God relished forcing Israel’s deliverance from Egypt – He counted Egyptian losses as a personal cost He Himself had to pay to release Israel.
When Asa was king of Judah the Ethiopians invaded them. Rather than allow Israel to be disturbed, God destroyed the Ethiopians. This was another instance where God viewed the losses of the Ethiopians as a cost He Himself paid in order to maintain Israel’s liberty. If God considered Egypt and Ethiopia to be sacrificial ransom for Israel, how much greater the sacrifice of Christ Himself? God was never about simply laying the suffering at the feet of others. No He fed Himself into the system to suffer and die for sins He was fully innocent of. 1 John says in this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God was ready and willing to purchase His people with great sacrifice because of how much He values the faithful. The faithful are precious, honored, and loved in the sight of God. They are the crown jewels of His creation. You’ll often hear skeptics deride the value of humanity by suggesting we aren’t that far from the primordial soup from which – according to them – life emerged. But it’s interesting to note that the human brain is the most complex object in the universe that we know of. So of all the mysteries we’ve encountered in the vast grandeur of the cosmos, nothing has proven more puzzling than the brain. We are the crown jewel of God’s creation. Exodus 19 says that if you obey God and walk in His ways then you will be His treasured possession among all people – for all of creation belongs to God.
God loves you and if you are faithful then God delights in you. The Church is God’s Church, it’s like His vineyard. And this next idea might be of some utility if you suffer from an unhealthy measure of low self-esteem. God is the essence of objective reality – He is ultimate reality and ultimate truth. So everything else we theorize and wonder about draws its validity in reference to the reality of God. If God sees you as valuable, if God sees you as honorable, if God loves you and considers you precious among His creation – then that actually is who you are above anything else. You may have been told that life is ultimately meaningless and you are worthless. You may even believe that about yourself. But all of those thoughts are simply theories and they fail to pass muster when considered against the truth of God.
So, historically speaking, God has always cared about His people. He cared enough to pay the Egyptian and the Ethiopian cost of Israel’s liberation. He cared enough to pay the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for our own liberation. He considered it all worthwhile because He treasured the faithful among His creation. We’ve talked about why God cares, we’ve talked about the fact that He has always cared, and now I want to look ahead and discuss the fact that He will always care. For the Israelites this was illustrated by God promising further instances of His care and kindness towards them.
God promised to be by their side through their greatest struggles and dangers. Their security would come from the fact of God’s presence with them. If they encountered deep water they would not perish in it. If their faithful adherence to God caused their enemies to cast them into the fire they would not be burned by it. That promise was fulfilled in Daniel 3 when Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace while God preserved them. Fire and water are being used metaphorically to represent the valley of the shadow of death – which all of us must walk through. Scripture says that we need not fear evil as we pass through that valley so long as we are with God. He will bear us up and carry us on into abundant life.
In addition to being by their side, God also promised to elevate the interest of God’s people over the interest of the world’s people. That could explain why after generations of otherwise brilliant thinkers attempting to undermine the Word of God their efforts haven’t yielded much gain. The Bible is still the top selling book in the world by a very large margin. Not only has it sold more copies than any other book in history – but it’s actually the best selling book of the year every year. They don’t even list it among best sellers because its dominance is just assumed. That’s kind of interesting when you think about it from a secular perspective.
If you’re not religious and you think Scripture is written by human beings without the inspiration of God, then the Bible is really no different from something like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Meditations is lauded as a classic of wisdom literature. But it’s possible you’ve never even heard of it. Skeptics try to explain away the timeless preservation and proliferation of the Bible but they rarely form intelligible conclusions. Perhaps that’s because it’s preservation and proliferation is supernatural. Perhaps it’s preservation and proliferation is ordained by God. God moves through history and directs the affairs of the world for the good of the Church. 2 Chronicles 16 says that the eyes of God run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose hearts are blameless toward him.
Part of God’s continued care for His people was His promise to bring them home from exile. After being taken into exile the Israelites were scattered and dispersed into the territories of the Babylonian empire. But no matter how remote their residence, God promised that He would stir their spirits and return them to Jerusalem. There is no part of the universe where God’s grace cannot reach. Deuteronomy 30 says that if your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you. Imperial nations scattered and isolated conquered people to weaken them and prevent them from uniting against the empire. God’s promise was to bring His chosen Israelites back together in Jerusalem so they could once again worship communally.
So what were the characteristics of the certain Israelites whom God considered upright and whom He carefully gathered in? These were people who were marked for mercy. They were called by His name, they made professions of faith, and they were set apart from the world because of their covenant relationship with God. They were created for God’s glory and they did their best to represent the spirit of Israel that God desired. These were people who responded to God’s will to shape and form them. Even so, the most important characteristic of these people was that they were recipients of God’s grace. They simply accepted His grace and so He gathered them in. Today, those who accept God’s grace by faith in Jesus are gathered in to Christ as head of the Church and when they pass away they’re gathered into heaven as their eternal home. God’s promise to gather in His people has been fully manifested as the gospel. The gospel reaches the far side of the world and unites dispersed strangers by transforming them into brothers and sisters in Christ. Despite the forces of the world being stacked against it, the Church prevails and marches on because God is with the Church. God is the one who ensures that not a single one who belongs to Him will be lost. Let’s read verses 8-13:
Isa 43:8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!
Isa 43:9 All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true.
Isa 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
Isa 43:11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.
Isa 43:12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.
Isa 43:13 Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”
This passage opens with God’s challenge for the idolaters to bring forth evidence of the divinity of their false gods. God declared that these idols had eyes yet could not see. They had ears and yet they could not hear. The same held true for those who worshiped the idols. The claim was that these worshipers were endowed with the same faculties and capacities as everyone else – yet their idol worship caused them to be bereft of reason and common sense. God invited all the nations of idolaters to unite together and help each other in their effort to plead the cause of their false gods. He knew they would come up empty and He wanted them to experience that emptiness so they could exercise the humility needed to listen to the true and living God.
After challenging the idolaters, God called upon His own witnesses to testify about His greatness. These witnesses included every person God called by His name and all the prophets who testified to Christ as well as Christ Himself. God’s people were witnesses who could attest to the power of His grace, the sweetness of His comforts, the gentleness of His providence, and the authenticity of His promise. If you are a Christian then this same idea is true of you today. Your very life is evidence of God’s grace and the potency of His Word.
The prophets carried these same characteristics in addition to being privy to some of God’s secrets and knowing a little more about Him than others did. Christ is like the ultimate witness for God because He is God. He is the perfect likeness of God the Father. Christ revealed knowledge of God to us that could have never been ascertained any other way. Being a witness to God is a role tasked to each of us every single day. Since we believe, we should be ready to speak about what we know and share our knowledge of God with others. The primary purpose for this witness is to show others that we acknowledge Jesus is Lord and give them the opportunity to acknowledge it as well.
A person who is in relationship with God cannot help but know, understand, and believe certain things. Anytime you learn or discover something you add to yourself and put to death the person you were before you added it. It’s kind of like how once you discover Santa Claus isn’t real it’s impossible for you to return to believing in him without being disingenuous. So once you’ve accepted Christ and He’s transformed you into a new creation, it’s your job to bear record to the fact that He is the only true God. He is the only Being who is fully self-actualized. He is the only One whom you are to fear, to worship, and to invest your highest measure of trust in. Unlike the idols, God comes from everlasting and He was here before existence itself.
The idols were created and formed by the hands of humanity. By their very nature they were not gods. Many of these idols were recently formed whereas the truth of God extended back into eternity. The truth tends to be more ancient than error because the truth is able to stand the test of time. There will come a day when idolatry is no more but the worship of God will remain. The Word of God will hold its ground against all opposition and it will never pass away.
The witnesses of God are called to testify that He is the Lord who is, was, and will be to come. There is no Savior besides Him. I think it’s interesting that God delights in the fact that He is our only Savior. I mean He could just as easily delight in the fact that He’s omnipotent and is our only ruler. But it’s telling of God’s character that His greatest desire is to love us and be the Savior of all of humanity. God delights to do good.
So God called forth the idolaters and His own witnesses to show that He is divine and the false gods are nothing. Evidence of God’s divinity includes His infinite and infallible knowledge which manifests itself in His ability to make accurate predictions about the future. Not only does God make accurate predictions, but the future actually unfolds itself according to His declarations. He brings it into being. God kept the Israelites in the loop on this process back when they first came out of Egypt because they had not yet welcomed false gods into their midst.
Further evidence for God’s divinity is His infinite and irresistible power. God’s power is made evident by His acts of providence. God is not a passive observer of the universe. He doesn’t just sit back and watch it all unfold. He’s the One driving it. Nothing can stop God’s work of salvation and nothing can stop God’s work of judgment. He made a point to tell the idolaters that no human can stay His hand and none of their false gods can protect them from Him. God will finish His works of mercy and judgment and there are none who can oppose Him or slow Him down.
Compare God’s divinity to the emptiness of man-made idols. He asked the false gods who among them could declare what He declares. Who among them could predict the future? Who among them could describe the past and tell us where existence came from? This was a real challenge with an actual invitation from God for the idols to be proven true. If they could match God’s evidence for Himself in their own right, then they would be justified in demanding worship and the idolaters would be justified in giving it. But God knew they would fall short and He wanted them to fall short so that the idolaters would turn back to Him and accept the truth of Him.
Many skeptics say that debating evidence in regards to religion is useless because religion is faith-based and therefore not falsifiable. But that just isn’t true when it comes to Christianity. The most fundamental claim Christ made is completely falsifiable. It’s His resurrection. It even says in Scripture that if Christ did not rise from the dead then your faith is in vain. All you would have to do to fully destroy the Christian faith is find the body of Jesus Christ. But it’s never been found and it won’t be found. Christianity is unique among all other religions because of its evidential merit and its falsifiability. So you don’t need to check your skepticism at the door when you become a Christian. Although you can do that – and doing that is a lot easier and will grant you access to peace of mind much faster. God desires child-like faith. Let’s read verses 14-21:
Isa 43:14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
Isa 43:16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
Isa 43:17 who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
Isa 43:18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.
Isa 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isa 43:20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,
Isa 43:21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
When the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity their faith weakened and their hope withered. They needed reassurance of deliverance and encouragement to stay strong. So God issued them reminders of who He is and the power He has over their fate. He is our Redeemer and He makes it His own personal business to save us. The Israelites were in bondage but all they needed was God for their redemption. God called Himself the Holy One of Israel to remind His people that He would make good on every promise He made. He reminded the people that He is their Creator and that He brought them into being from nothing. He presented Himself to them as their King to show that He is sovereign over them as individuals as well as sovereign over their future.
When the Babylonians drove the Israelites into exile they had no intention of ever releasing them. Babylon’s condemnation of the people of Israel played a primary role in causing their iniquity to fully mature in the sight of God. God doesn’t bring judgment upon a nation until its wickedness has reached a certain level. Babylon’s was there. So God’s will was to carry the Persian King Cyrus into victory over Babylon. The conquest of Cyrus would bring down Babylon’s nobility and crush their honor into the dust. Even the Chaldean sailors would find no escape on their ships. God declared the destruction of Babylon both because of their iniquity and also to make room for Israel’s growth. The fall of Babylon was Israel’s ticket home to Jerusalem.
As part of God’s assurance to the Israelites He reminded them of His victory in delivering their forefathers from the slavery of Egypt. He wanted to convey the idea that He would do the same for them when the time was right. He would not leave them to die in Babylon. The Red Sea event represented deliverance, safe passage, and security. During the Exodus, the Israelites were able to retreat from Pharaoh’s army into the Red Sea. The waters were like a wall to protect them and the dry land was like a road prepared by God for their safe passage. So they had the faith to walk through it. For God’s enemies, this very same event represented danger and death. The Egyptian army pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea and for them it became a watery grave. Why would they run right in after the Israelites? It could be that they didn’t believe God was responsible for the division of the sea. That’s how it is for enemies of God. They think they know enough to call the shots and predict the future but it’s often too far and too late once they’ve figured out their mistake.
So God was using the Red Sea event as a way to remind the captive Israelites of the good works He’d done for them in the past. This is a useful idea for us today. If your situation is tragic and you are struggling, it can be helpful to meditate on all the ways God has come through for you in the past. Quite literally count your blessings. But God didn’t stop at reminding them of the past. He offered promises of new things and greater things to come. He would outdo the miracles that their forefathers witnessed. God told the people not to remember and not to compare the things of old to the things of the present moment. But why would He tell the Israelites to forget the past directly after He had just reminded them of it? It’s because He wasn’t telling them to forget the past entirely. They were being warned against getting so caught up in the past that they miss God in the present moment. The Pharisees suffered that problem. They were so hyped up on the religiosity of their forebears that Jesus Himself stood right in front of them and they missed it. They failed to see Him. It’s good for us to remember the former things God has done for us so long as remembrance doesn’t take the place of relationship or attention on what God is doing in the present moment.
For the Israelites, not only would God rescue them out of Babylon, but He also promised them safe and comfortable passage back to their homeland. The journey from Egypt to Canaan back during the Exodus led through the wilderness. It was likely a similar situation for the journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem. The Israelites would have to travel through areas where there was little food or water. But God promised to provide for them Himself. He brought water where there was none and food when times looked scarce. By His power He ensured proper order and conduct in Israel’s camp as they returned home.
God’s providence would so bless the territory Israel journeyed through that even the wild animals would reap a benefit. I think it’s interesting to note that the wild animals honor God for His providence. If they were capable they would have also praised Him – such was the refreshment of His blessing. The animals probably viewed humanity with a sense of incredulity – after all, the human beings are made to praise God and many times we fail to do so.
While the Israelites didn’t need the exact same thing during their return from Babylon as they did during the Exodus from Egypt – we still see the same providence of God in the form of His mercy on them. It’s the same providence that remained with the Jews throughout the time between Babylon and the first coming of Christ. It’s the same providence that looks ahead to the grace of the gospel and God’s mercy on the Gentile world. The gospel is like sustenance given to a dying world. The Gentiles suffered in a wilderness of ignorance and fruitlessness – but the gospel gave them divine direction, divine comfort, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit. The gospel allowed the sinful Gentiles to become faithful witnesses to the Jews – who were God’s chosen ones among the people.
All of these promises draw on the underlying purpose of God’s intention. To bring glory and honor to Himself as a consequence of His love for us. So the Church and everyone in it are formed according to God’s design for His own will. In fact, God has made all things for Himself. He’s the first cause and the only maintainer of everything that is. Human beings discover ultimate purpose in glorifying God and praising Him. This is not simply about what we say – but it’s how we live. It’s that we offer ourselves up as living sacrifices to transform things for the better. I think deep down we all know this. We don’t feel good when we fail to measure up to our potential. We feel guilty. I think we feel guilty because we know that God upholds us, blesses us, and guides us. The desire and the vitality of our souls is to praise God and glorify Him. Irenaeus of Lyons said that man fully alive is the glory of God. Let’s finish with verses 22-28:
Isa 43:22 “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
Isa 43:23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.
Isa 43:24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.
Isa 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.
Isa 43:27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.
Isa 43:28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.
It seems strange that Isaiah went from words of encouragement to words of judgment. The purpose of these charges against Israel was to explain the justice behind God bringing the Israelites into captivity. Before Babylon took Jerusalem, the people were in covenant with God and He had made His sanctuary among them. Things were pretty good for the people and yet they rejected God anyway – thus ushering in the their own curse and exile. God confronted them with these charges after promising deliverance because the people needed to own up to it. They needed to restore themselves to the truth. Explaining the charges against Israel also served to reveal the gravity of God’s mercy. Their deliverance was a glorious display of God’s grace because they were a people who had gone very far astray. They were so saddled with iniquity that God’s pardon of their sin was equivalent in magnitude to His breaking their bondage under Babylon itself.
Part of the charges against Israel were their sins of omission. God created and formed these people so that they might praise and honor Him. Yet they did neither of these things. They refused to even call upon His name. So that means they rarely if ever prayed. God called the people Jacob when he presented this charge because their ancestor Jacob was famous for his prayer life. The people were true descendants of Jacob but they failed to keep step with him in this area of their lives. It can be a very bad thing to depart from the wisdom, civility, and godliness of those who came before you. The Israelites boasted of their lineage to Jacob and yet they failed to measure up to him when it came to prayer. Their arrogance mocked God and caused them to deceive themselves.
This self-deception caused the people to become weary of God. They had been employed in the services of God. They had been in communion with God. They had lived in relationship with God. But when a person entertains the deceptive temptation to change masters the person becomes weary with God. For example, if your heart is set on money then you’re going to spend more time contemplating money than you are in prayer.
As the people continued to deceive themselves other problematic areas began surfacing. At one point in history Israel gave their first and their best as an offering to God. But now they were doing everything they could to cut the cost of their sacrifice. They started making excuses as to why they couldn’t participate in the more expensive devotions. They lied about not being able to spare anything as an offering to God. Their sense of God’s greatness and their obligation to Him had diminished so much that they could no longer open their hearts to Him. They brought their leftovers or whatever was worthless and used those things as their offerings – when they brought anything at all. Of course, God never so much as considered these kinds of offerings as sacrifices. So it was a good-for-nothing transaction that didn’t help anyone.
Some of the people brought offerings to false gods. Those who brought mediocre offerings to the true God were either careless in their manner of offering or hypocritical in their intentions. God does not like an offering that comes from a wicked heart. In that case it would be better to get your heart right before offering anything at all. And here’s the part about all of this that is so fascinating. God went on to tell Israel that He had done nothing to burden them or make them weary. Being in relationship with God and serving Him is not drudgery. The drudgery that Israel felt had actually emerged from the corruption inside of their hearts. The condition of their hearts made their relations to God wearisome.
The reality on the ground was that God’s requested offering was pennies on the dollar compared to the resources some of these people had access to. The time that God requested of them was never more than they could easily spare. And perhaps what wearied the Israelites the most were their efforts at broadcasting a happy and pleasant image of themselves. The truth is they were depressed and without direction – this is an inevitable consequence of turning away from God.
In the New Testament Christ tells us that His yoke is light and His burden is easy. That’s Him comparing our relationship with God through Jesus Christ to the ordinances of the Old Testament ceremonial law. It’s easy by comparison. But even the Old Testament ceremonies were considered easy and light compared to the iron yoke of slavery to sin or devotion to idols. False gods like Moloch required people to burn their own children as a sacrifice to him. So it wasn’t as if the Israelites were actually overburdened by their devotion to the true and living God. Their hearts were just corrupted.
The problem with sins of omission is that they often pave the way for sins of commission. The Israelites were using God’s gifts as fuel for basest human lusts. They used God’s providence to further facilitate their own evil projects. Perhaps most perniciously they embraced their own sin by way of abusing God’s grace. They used God’s grace as an excuse to sin in word, thought, and deed. Their iniquity brought weariness to themselves and it also grieved God. Human beings were never designed to serve their own sins – they were designed to serve God. To step away from God is to step away from a wise and loving Master in favor of a cruel and difficult one. Our service to God does not weaken us by corrupting our hearts and twisting our souls the way that sin does.
The Israelites, as well as us today, were children of disobedience. All sin can be traced to the apostasy and rebellion of our first father, Adam. Our forefathers stood equally guilty in the sight of God all the way down the line to you and me. Humanity is not only sinful, but we are like scholars of sin. When our teachers and our leaders fall corrupt iniquity becomes a science that we strive to perfect. It’s absolutely unbelievable how cruel human beings can be. Of all the lifeforms that walk this planet, humanity has the capacity to be the best and the oh so very worst. It does not bode well for a civilization when its teachers are corrupted and abandon their posts of reforming our minds to the truth.
God’s response to the Israelites going so far astray was to bring ruin upon the church and the state. Prior to the exile, the priests and the Levites who presided over the sanctuary in Jerusalem had become corrupt. They no longer judged fairly and they gave instruction with partiality. The priests and the Levites were once dignified and powerful but they had debased themselves. So God profaned them and made them vile. They fell into contempt and calamity. God brought down the honor of the church and lowered it to the ground.
But the state wasn’t immune from God’s judgment either. After Babylon conquered Jerusalem many of Israel’s neighbors cursed, hated, and abused them. Essentially they were bullied by nations that used to be weaker than them. These nations insulted and demeaned Israel for the good things they had left – a good example is how they mocked Israel’s Sabbaths. But God let it all happen. He handed His people over for this treatment because they needed to correct what was wrong inside of them.
We can learn from this today. As Christians we’re told to expect persecution. But it’s important to remember that Jesus said blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He didn’t say blessed are those who are persecuted for any reason at all. Being a victim is not a virtue, but being virtuous can sometimes make you a victim. There’s also times where God brings persecution into our lives to show us that we’re doing something wrong. If you’re a Christian and you feel like you’re hated everywhere you go – it’s worth asking yourself if you are doing something wrong. God alerts us to our dishonor of Him by allowing others to dishonor us. If you’re persecuted and confused, it could be that you need a dose of humility in order to see what’s wrong with you and correct it. If your beliefs are preventing you from loving God and loving your neighbor, there’s a good chance that you’re doing it wrong.
You would think after the displays of wickedness we just outlined regarding the people of Israel that God would have been justified in destroying them. But the roller coaster continued as God moved from leveling very serious charges against Israel to showing them His mercy. The declarations of God’s grace teach us that forgiving those who have wronged us is the best way to restore ourselves to joy and peace. God invited them to turn from their sins and be wearied no longer. He gave them divine mercy as a free gift. God showed us that where sin abounded grace abounded even more abundantly.
The moment Israel repented God stopped the course of His judgments against them. After He corrected them they were reconciled to Him once again. He does this over and over again with humanity. He loves us and He doesn’t desire to punish us which is why He always welcomes us home with open arms. The only time forgiveness is not available is when a person rejects Christ and his gospel. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable because it is a sin against the remedy for sin. How can a person be forgiven if they continuously spurn forgiveness?
So God forgave Israel as a nation but He also forgave each repentant person as an individual. He knew all about each of them. He knew their apostasy, their wickedness, and their infirmities but He blotted out their transgressions anyway. When you repent and turn to Him, God crosses off your sins as debts that have been paid. He quite literally forgets that you’ve ever sinned. In the sight of God you are a new creation – a fresh start. It’s one of the mysteries of God’s grace. God is perhaps the only one who is able to love us perfectly even after we’ve sinned against Him. Our past wickedness doesn’t minimize His future love for us.
This unending mercy and love glorifies God and reveals just how good the gospel is. Human beings have a difficult time forgiving each other. But God delights in it. God glories in it. God is the only one who can forgive sins and He does it with pleasure because it is His settled resolution. This chapter closes with an issued warning to those who might seek right standing with God by their own merits. These would be like Pharisees who claimed to be good enough people that they didn’t need God’s grace. Any who accept this challenge to plead their own case before God will come up speechless. The idea here is that standing before God and claiming that you don’t need His forgiveness is a really bad strategy. The intimation is that once you can see the whole truth you won’t even be able to speak such things.
So what is the right way into the Kingdom of God? Only through Jesus and the work He has done. Seek Him out and accept the free gift of His grace. This is not some combination of performances that you have to get just right in order to earn His favor. Just ask Him. If you’ve done that truly in your heart then you are saved. God has forgotten your sins. But it’s your obligation to remember the sins He has forgiven. This remembrance will keep you humble and keep you in the mercies of God. Acknowledge your transgressions, trust that God has forgiven you, and walk forward into eternal life. That is the road that leads to the peace of mind that God designed you to have from everlasting to everlasting.
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