Our scripture lesson tonight comes from Isaiah chapter 45. We'll start back in 44.21 in order to get the context here. So we'll start in Isaiah 44 verse 21. Hear now the word of the Lord. Remember these things, O Jacob. And Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you. You are my servant. Oh Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing, oh heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, oh depths of the earth. Break forth into singing, oh mountains, oh forest, and every tree in it. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb, I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish. who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins. Who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers. Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. I will go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me. That people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Shower, O heavens from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness, that the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, that the earth cause them both to sprout. I, the Lord, have created it. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or, your work has no handles. Woe to him who says to a father, what are you begetting? Or to a woman, with what are you in labor? Thus says the Lord, the holy one of Israel, and the one who formed him, ask me of things to come. Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts. I have stirred him up in righteousness and I will make all his ways level. He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord, the wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours. They shall follow you. They shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying, Surely God is in you and there is no other, no God besides him. Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded. The makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation. You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. For thus says the Lord who created the heavens. He is God who formed the earth and made it. He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other. I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness. I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, seek me in vain. I the Lord speak the truth. I declare what is right. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save. Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I the Lord? and there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. Bell bows down, Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and livestock. These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. This is the word of the Lord. Humanity has Alzheimer's. Humanity is forgetful. And the worst part is, the people of God are forgetful. We have dementia. We forget the one who formed us. Isaiah speaks of the Lord as the creator. There's a double meaning going on here because there is the reference to the creation of the heavens and the earth, but also the reference to the creation of Israel, the creation of his people, the new creation that God brought as a picture in the formation of Israel and to its fullness in the birth of his church. And here in Isaiah 45, we are challenged because when you think about the idols of the nations, what function do they fulfill in the cultures around Israel? Well, they were used to explain the world that we live in and how it works. So when you hear the language of idolatry and you hear the language of these idols that cannot speak, Think also of the idolatry of our modern day. If you think about the way that science is often used to explain how everything came into existence. When you think about it, it doesn't really work. It doesn't explain. It's an assertion just like the idols of the ancient world. That's where the way in which the way in which our world tells us, ah, we can explain everything through science or through philosophy or through psychology. All these things, in the same way that Isaiah had spoken last time about how a block of wood is a very useful thing. You can use it to warm yourself and cook your food on. In the same way, science is a very useful thing. Philosophy and psychology, very useful things. But they don't work as idols. They don't work as things to explain everything and then make sense of the world because they don't. Only the Lord, the God who made heaven and earth can explain the world and then as we see tonight, redeem the world. because the Creator is your Redeemer. And that's where we start at the end of chapter 44. There are five statements here, these thus saith the Lord's, that run through the end of 44 and all the way up to the beginning of chapter 46. These five thus saith the Lord's that declare who is our Redeemer, who is the one who has redeemed Israel, his servant, We've seen that Israel is the servant of the Lord, but Israel is blind and deaf. Israel, the servant, is not what God's servant is supposed to be. And so now we hear from the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things. We looked at this last week and heard these this one long sentence from verses 24 to 28 with these 10 participles describing the Lord, the one who made all things, the one who mocks the idolaters, the one who does what he says, and then particularly, this part of what all these 10 participles are doing is they're building momentum as you keep going through until you get to the punchline at the end who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd. Cyrus? Cyrus, the shepherd? This is David language. This is David and Solomon. There's the building of the temple and the shepherding of God's people. Why is Cyrus being called the shepherd of the Lord, my shepherd? Well, wrap your minds around who this is. There are some faithful scholars who think that the second half of Isaiah was written by a later student of Isaiah because they're like, how could Isaiah have known the name of Cyrus? Well, obviously, if the Lord God is the one who is announcing these things, then God knew the name and could easily have told Isaiah. But God says that he will open doors for Cyrus. He will do for Cyrus what he promises to do for his Mashiach, that's what he calls him. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to his Mashiach, to the Messiah, Cyrus. And God promises Cyrus that he will subdue nations before him and will level the exalted places cutting through the bars of iron in order to give to Cyrus the hordes in secret places. Why would God give to this Persian king the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places? Why is God doing this for the king of Persia? Well, it's that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. And God's purpose is to make himself known to all nations. Now, think about this against the backdrop of Israel's history. Back in Genesis, God had said to Abraham, those who bless you will be blessed, those who curse you will be cursed. And he had said, he had given him more of those three parts of the promise, the land and the seed and the blessing to the nations. And so if those who bless you will be blessed, those who curse you will be cursed, Well, in Genesis, Pharaoh blessed Joseph, the seed of Abraham, by putting Joseph in charge of all that he had. And the result was that God blessed Pharaoh. Indeed, Jacob stands before the greatest king in the world and twice blesses Pharaoh. Nomads do not bless Pharaohs. That's just not what happens in the ancient world. Usually, if some wandering nomad came up to Pharaoh and tried to bless him, Pharaoh would be like, really insulted. Nomad might not live. But Pharaoh accepts the blessing of Jacob. Why? Because this was a Pharaoh who got it. I fully expect to see that Pharaoh on the Judgment Day standing with all the sheep. Because that Pharaoh understood that blessing came through Joseph and through Joseph's family. How much more he understood about the Gospel, I don't know. But he got the core of it. Now God says that he will bless Cyrus. Why? Verse four, for the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you though you do not know me. When the nations bless the seed of Abraham, when the nations bless my servant Jacob, then God blesses the nations. Now, part of it is Cyrus is famous for sending the exiles home. Cyrus is remarkable. What did it take the Pharaoh of the Exodus in order to release Israel? Ten plagues, including the death of his firstborn. Cyrus lets Israel go home without any reward whatsoever. Now, Cyrus is famous in world history because he sent all exiles home. The Assyrians and the Babylonians were notorious for moving exiles around and never letting them go home. Cyrus was renowned for sending all the exiles back to their native lands. And in this respect, Cyrus is justly praised for doing that, which in one sense, you could argue he was doing it for political reasons because he wanted to win the favor of all these peoples. But kings who actually do what is right and just and good, even if it's out of selfish motivation, kings who do what is right and just and good are like, wow, cool. And Cyrus, you could argue one way or the other about policy as to which would be the best policy, but Cyrus did what was right and just and good. And so while he is and remains a pagan, I name you though you do not know me, the Lord equips him as his anointed, as his Messiah. In verse 5 and 6, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me, there is no God. I equip you though you do not know me, he says again, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. God's purpose in equipping Cyrus and in calling him as his Messiah is that the people all over the earth may know that the Lord is God and there is no other. And there's lots of creational language that God uses here. I form light. I create darkness. If you think about it, the treasures of darkness in verse 3 couldn't exist unless the Lord had first created them. And when he says, I make well-being and create calamity, these are the words for peace and evil. God is the one who makes shalom. He makes peace. He makes well-being. But he is also the one who creates calamity. This is the word often translated evil. And like in Hebrew as in English, you can use this word either to refer to natural evils, like earthquakes and other such disasters. We call them evils. They're natural evils. But there's also moral evils, such as sin. And the point that Isaiah is making is that good things and bad things both come from the hand of the Lord. The disaster that came upon Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah was from the hand of the Lord. Indeed, there's a lot of echoes here in chapter 45 from Isaiah chapter 10, which was Isaiah's prophecy against Assyria, how Assyria would be the rod of God's anger against Jerusalem, and the Lord would use Assyria to accomplish his purpose of judgment. But then, the Lord would overthrow the arrogant Assyrians in their turn. Really, the difference between chapter 10 and chapter 45 is that Cyrus is treated very differently from the kings of Assyria. Cyrus is not merely spoken of as an axe or a rod in the hand of the Lord. God calls Cyrus by name, and He calls him His Messiah, His Anointed One, and My Shepherd, because Cyrus, unlike the Assyrians and unlike the Pharaoh of Moses' day, will bless the seed of Abraham, will bless My servant Jacob, It's an important lesson for the kings of the earth. Be like Cyrus. Do what's right. And sure, the focus is on what Cyrus did for Israel, but rulers who treat conquered peoples like human beings will be blessed. The Persians had their own faults, and God would eventually judge them for those, but Cyrus was a breath of fresh air. as compared with the Assyrians and the Babylonians. And so the Lord Himself says, When we talk about how all of creation relates to God, remember that Not only did God make all things in the beginning, but he also continues to rule them today. That when God says, let the earth cause them both to sprout, let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, let the earth cause them both to sprout, I, the Lord, have created it. God commands the earth and the earth obeys. This is why prayer is so important, because when you're praying, you're talking to the one who can do something about the mess that we live in. And as we remember who God is, as we remember that all things are from the hand of the Lord, so also we need to remember what we are. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots. Isaiah likes using this image of the potter and the clay. And here, if you chuckled when I was reading it the first time, you should have. Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or, your work has no handles. Some of you maybe have worked with clay or built something. It doesn't talk back. There's all the difference in the world. between complaining and talking back. As we've often seen, God encourages us to be good complainers. We come to Him and bring our complaints, but we should not grumble, we should not whine, we should not talk back to God, as illustrated in verse 10. Woe to him who says to a father, what are you begetting? Or to a woman, with what are you in labor? You, son, at least we would be if you aren't interrupting us. What child ever talks back while being begotten or being born? This is not what happens. A complaint does not order God around. And that's a worthy point for children to consider and for all of us when we bring complaints. When you bring a complaint, make sure you do it with honor and respect. and then submit to their judgment. And if there's a reason, if you say, well, wait a second, this is really, really bad, then go to the proper authorities and say, hey, this shouldn't be happening. But God pronounces a woe on him who says to his father, what are you begetting? Or to a woman, what are you in labor? it's upside down and backwards. So the third, thus saith the Lord, in verses 11 to 13, explains God's purposes. After all, will you command the Lord? Of course not. Verse 11, thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed Him, namely the One who formed Israel, ask me of things to come. Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? What is God doing? And Israel may wonder, why are you going to use this heathen to save Israel? Wouldn't it make more sense to raise up another Samson or a Gideon? Why not deliver Israel through a son of David? And God's answer is, are you going to tell me what to do concerning my children and the work of my hands? I am the creator of all things. I dispose of my creation in the manner I see fit, and I have chosen Cyrus. I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level." When you think about it, God is going to use Cyrus. Now, if you want to... I've oftentimes used this illustration in other contexts, but it works well here. Was Cyrus ever a believer in Yahweh? almost certainly not. We know enough about him to know he may have never really heard much of anything about the God of the Hebrews. But God used him mightily for the furtherance of his kingdom. In the same way, in the 20th century, you may have heard me say this before, but there is one person in the 20th century who deserves more credit for bringing the gospel to more people than anybody else, and it's not Billy Graham. It's Mao Zedong, the Chinese who tried to squash all religion and especially, well, I shouldn't say especially Christianity, I'm not sure he cared which one he squashed more than others, but he was trying to obliterate religion and establish an atheistic, communistic empire in China. And yet, through his squashing of religion, he wound up creating a context in which the gospel flourished and millions of people came to faith in Jesus Christ because of Mao Zedong. Now, this is where I would not say that when you compare Mao Zedong with Cyrus, Cyrus was a much better ruler and a much kinder person. If you haven't studied the historical Cyrus, he's a really interesting character and people look at him and say, wow, there aren't many rulers like this who were as generous and sort of had this sort of, yeah, these people, he well deserves that. But God says he uses him for his purposes, and And he says, I have stirred him up in righteousness. I will make all his ways level. God will put a highway in the wilderness for Cyrus. He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward. Maybe if Israel bribed a king, they could free themselves. No, no. Cyrus will do this of his own volition. God will stir his heart. This is yet another example of the hints and clues that God is giving to Israel, that his purposes for Israel are to bring the blessings of God to the nations. And indeed, the fourth, thus saith the Lord, in verses 14 to 17, speaks of then the results of Cyrus's actions. that the wealth of Egypt and Cush will flow into Jerusalem, into Israel. And not only their wealth, but they themselves will recognize that God is with Israel. And there is no other, no God besides Him. God is raising up Cyrus because God is bringing the Gentiles to faith. And in verses 15 to 17, Isaiah responds to this Gospel, Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Why did he say that God is hiding himself? If you think about it, God demonstrates his glory and his goodness in such obvious ways that it's almost bizarre that anyone fails to believe in God, and yet, idolaters refuse to see it. Truly, you are a God who hides yourself. After all, the blind cannot see, the deaf cannot hear. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation. And when he saves his people, he brings them to himself. For thus says the Lord, this fifth and final, thus saith the Lord, starting in verse 18, concludes the message regarding Cyrus and the redemption of Israel, his servant, Once again, Yahweh is called the creator of heavens and the earth, and he formed it to be inhabited. And he did not speak in secret in a land of darkness. Think back to verse 3, the treasures of darkness, the hordes and secret places. That's not where God spoke. God spoke openly to the offspring of Jacob. There's a way in which because God spoke to the offspring of Jacob, and then through Cyrus, and especially when you think about the fact that the fulfillment of what Isaiah is saying here didn't actually happen when Israel was sent back. This is part of the reason why I'm just not convinced. I mean, to me it's no big deal. If it turns out when we get to Gori that there was a student of Isaiah who wrote it, no big deal to me. But the reason why I don't see the argument is because If this was written down by somebody 150 years later who knew all the events intimately, he might have done a little better at retelling the history rather than what it sounds like, which sounds more like predicting the future. But part of it is, what he's describing didn't actually happen in the return from exile. the wealth of Egypt, the merchandise of Cush, didn't flow into Jerusalem after the exile. And much of what Isaiah speaks of here only happens several hundred years later when our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. Because there's a way in which all of this language of, you know, I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness, well, Where is the land of darkness? What is this treasures in the secret place? That's the nations. And when did that happen? Well, starting at Pentecost, when the gospel was proclaimed in multiple languages, and the word of the Lord went forth to the nations, God started speaking openly to the offspring of Jacob. And he did not tell them, seek me in vain. He spoke the truth. He declared what is right. Yes, he is a God who hides himself. That's because he's God. He's not answerable to us. We don't get to tell him how to run his world. But at the same time, He has called us to seek Him and He does not call us to seek Him in vain. Seek and you will find. But if you seek Him, if you're just seeking your own knowledge and your own power and your own interests, you may not find Him at all. Seek Him and He will be found by you. Indeed, God calls the survivors of the nations to assemble. Verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save. Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord, and there is no other God besides me? A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me. God calls you, present your case. If you want to believe in idols, give some evidence of their power. But they've never spoken. Only the Lord is a righteous God and a Savior. And so the Lord turns to the nations and says, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. Paul will quote this in Philippians 2. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. All the offspring of Israel. There's a sense in which all the offspring of Israel will become one man. Because all the offspring of Israel keep failing. until there came the one who was born of the Virgin. Only He will become the offspring of Israel, the true Israel, the seed of the woman, the son of David, who succeeds where Israel had failed. And because that's true in Jesus, therefore all who are in Jesus by faith become the offspring of Israel and are justified in His name. And the first two verses of chapter 46 conclude this by speaking of how the gods of Babylon will be humiliated. Bel will bow down before Yahweh, just like Dagon, the god of the Philistines in 1 Samuel 5, when the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Philistine temple and Dagon collapsed before Yahweh. Even so, the gods of Babylon will themselves go into captivity when Cyrus, the shepherd of God's people, comes to deliver them. There will come a day when God will judge between Israel and the nations. And on that day, God will vindicate His people. He will justify Israel. The return from exile was a picture of that day. On that day, God declared not guilty and He brought back His people to Jerusalem. But all of these justifications, from the deliverance of Egypt to the return from exile, fell short. Because the people of God kept sinning. They kept turning back to idolatry. God alone is the Savior and he must redeem his people. And so it was only 700 years later that finally a boy sat in the temple asking questions of the priests and the teachers. You can almost see him wrestling with the scripture as he begins to understand what God has called him to do because there must be a final day when God justifies the offspring of Israel, the seed of Abraham. He raised up Moses and delivered Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. But that was only the creation of Israel. It was only the beginning. He raised up Joshua and brought his people into the promised land. But that did not give his people rest. Their enemies continued to harry them from every side. He raised up David and established his kingdom. That only lasted a couple of generations before the kingdom was divided. He raised up Cyrus and brought back his people from exile. But they still lived under foreign kings without a son of David for 600 years. The day had not yet come when in Yahweh all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. And yet his own father and mother had named him Yahweh saves. He knows that God is his father in a unique way in a way that was true of no other man. How can a man be justified before God? How can the servant of the Lord be declared righteous in the court of heaven? The servant is blind and deaf. Israel does not see what God is doing. Jacob does not hear what God is saying. It was only when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Paul uses this verse in Philippians 2 Isaiah is talking about the justification of Israel and the inclusion of the Gentiles, that all nations will be brought under the sway of the Kingdom of God. And that's Paul's point when he says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. All that Isaiah promised about the inclusion of the Gentiles comes true in Jesus. It's only when Yahweh Himself takes the form of a servant that justification comes to the servant. In the law court of heaven, both the Israelite and the Gentile stand convicted of sin. There is none righteous, no, not one. When the divine verdict is declared, only Jesus is left standing. Jesus alone is declared righteous. Jesus is the justified one. And that is why only in the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory because Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Yahweh. All those who have that same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus will stand in the final day. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because He is the Yahweh who came in our flesh and who bore our sin and our misery and brought us to His Father. So let us pray. Almighty God, our heavenly father, how we thank you and praise you for your kindness to us in Jesus. How we thank you and praise you that in your great love, you did not leave us in our sin and our misery, but you sent your only begotten son. You sent him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that he might become the sin offering that bears our sin and takes our guilt upon himself. Thank you. Thank you for your great mercy. Thank you that you have not abandoned us to the grave, but even as you raised up your son, our Lord Jesus, so also you have raised us up in him that we might be yours forever. How we thank you and praise you and we ask that you would have mercy upon us, that you would help us and you would be merciful to us, that we might not grumble and murmur, but rather that we might come to you with confidence as children to a father, knowing that you love us and that you promise that you will hear us and you will bring us to yourself. Lord help us because we are weak and frail. We are forgetful. We are too much like our fathers and we forget what you have taught and we do not do what you have said. Forgive us, Lord. Renew us and refresh us by your word and by your spirit that we might grow and increase daily in the faith that is at work in every good deed. Help us in our homes as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as roommates and friends and colleagues in our work, as neighbors, as those who you have called to be your people. Help us to love you. and to love one another, and to seek first, not our own kingdoms, but to seek first the kingdom of your son, our Lord Jesus, and his righteousness. May we walk humbly together as your people, even as your son has taught us to pray. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.