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¹⁸ “Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
²¹ It pleased the Lord
    for the sake of his righteousness
    to make his law great and glorious.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    all of them trapped in pits
    or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
    with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
    with no one to say, “Send them back.”

²³ Which of you will listen to this
    or pay close attention in time to come?
²⁴ Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
    and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
    against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
    they did not obey his law.
²⁵ So he poured out on them his burning anger,
    the violence of war.
It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;
    it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

‘Blindness and deafness in spiritual things are worse in those that profess themselves to be God’s servants and messengers than in others.’ Matthew Henry.

This seems to take us back to the time before the captivity in Babylon, and the principle reason why the people of God went into exile:

”For they would not follow his ways;
    they did not obey his law.” (24).

People disregard God’s Word, preferring their own way, seeing it as the route to freedom. But they find themselves in deep trouble. (Mind you, the illusion of freedom can linger long, before we realise, to our horror, that we are in chains).

 ”Which of you will listen to this
    or pay close attention in time to come?” (23).

Will we?

”These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor.10:11,12).

We ignore God’s ”great and glorious” Word at our peril.

‘The law is truly honourable, and, if men will not magnify it by their obedience to it, God will magnify it by punishing them for their disobedience.’ Matthew Henry.

“Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”

“What consumes your mind controls your life.”

Unlike the Messiah (1-6), Israel was a failed servant, and paid for her sin in the years of Babylonian captivity. She had ”seen many things” (20). In other words, the nation had been the recipient of great privileges (e.g. promises, prophecies, and not least God’s Word – see v.21). But we can live in proximity to remarkable spiritual realities, and yet not pay attention to them.

In the Bible, privilege brings responsibility.

Our privileges are even greater than theirs, living as we do on this side of the Cross and the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; possessing, as we do, a complete Bible. But how’s our attention span? We live in an increasingly distracted age. Are we failing to see the many ‘burning bushes’ all around us?

Progress in the Christian life is enabled and encouraged by giving time and attention to the things of God.

Pay attention!

“For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
    I cry out, I gasp and pant.
¹⁵ I will lay waste the mountains and hills
    and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
    along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
    and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
    I will not forsake them.
¹⁷ But those who trust in idols,
    who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’
    will be turned back in utter shame.

‘It is no secret what God can do’, says a popular Christian song.

How we need what God can do – ”the things” He will do (16).

This passage poses a challenge: where does our trust lie really? (17). In what, in whom are we trusting? Where is our confidence? Let us examine ourselves.

I am aware that I have used this quote in the recent past, but it seems relevant to today’s passage:

“When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. And so on. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.” A.C. Dixon.

When we are praying for God to move, there can be a ”long time” of waiting on Him and for Him (14). But when it is time for God to demonstrate His power, things can change very quickly (vv15,16). These verses refer to miraculous things that only God can do.

God was going to bring His people back to their homeland, supernaturally overcoming every obstacle. ‘Now is the time for Israel to be ”delivered” from bondage, just as a baby is delivered during child-birth.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1041.

He still brings people out of captivity to sin, evil, and death by His own miraculous power.

PRAYER: May the world see in the church the works of Jesus, performed in the power of Jesus for the glory of Jesus.

“For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
    I cry out, I gasp and pant.

Matthew Henry sees verses 14-16 (which we will come back to tomorrow), as picturing the deliverance of people from captivity to sin, even as it describes the literal return of the Jews from Babylon. Speaking about God, he says:

‘He shall cry, in the preaching of his word, cry like a travailing woman; for the ministers of Christ preached as men that travailed in birth again till they saw Christ formed in the souls of the people, Gal. iv.19.’

‘For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now…’

It may be that you find yourself caught in a delay. It can feel frustrating, I know. But although it may be stating the obvious, it needs to be said (and understood) that God’s timing is perfect.

Last year, on 21st November, I recorded this extract, from ‘The growth of a work of God’ (the story of missionary Hudson Taylor) in my journal:

‘Delays and difficulties explained themselves, and how thankful Mr. Taylor felt for the restraining Hand that had kept him from leaving England previously…He had found himself at last, found life’s best and deepest, not in the way of his own choosing, but in the ”good works which God had before ordained” that he should walk in them…

It rather took Mr. Taylor’s breath at first! But it had come about entirely apart from his seeking, and in such a way as to leave no doubt that the one who had led him to settle in East London was opening to him also the drawing-rooms of the West.’

Taylor had experienced challenging delays to his plan to return to China, but then he found doors open to be able to inform influential people about the Chinese mission, and he garnered remarkable support.

God’s view is higher and broader and deeper than ours. He sees further, and He knows what He is doing, even when we don’t. It goes without saying that He is worthy of our fullest confidence.

The Lord will march out like a champion,
    like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
    and will triumph over his enemies.

The Lord is about to do a new thing. As He once led His people out of Egypt and through the wilderness, so there is going to be a second ‘exodus’, with Him at the Head. But although, in the short-term, the new thing is about the return of Israel from Babylon, as we saw yesterday this prophecy also has the long-term in view. It foresees the coming of Jesus, His building of an international church, and here in this verse, His conquest at the Cross. As I read verses 13, a couple of New Testament passages coming into mind:

”And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Col.2:15;

 ”Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14,15.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
    you islands, and all who live in them.
¹¹ Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;
    let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
    let them shout from the mountaintops.
¹² Let them give glory to the Lord
    and proclaim his praise in the islands.

‘The Gentile nations shall share equally with the Jews in New-Testament blessings, and therefore shall join in New-Testament praises and acts of worship. There shall be churches set up in Gentile nations and they shall sing a new song.’ Matthew Henry.

It is surely impossible to miss the world-wide vision and reach of these verses. The new thing God is going to do will result in the singing of a new song. It concerns the coming of Gentiles into the church, on an equal footing with the Jews, and sharing in all the blessings of the Kingdom. Of course see this most clearly now, with our New Testament perspective.

”Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴ In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:2-6; see also Ephesians 2:11-22).

‘Perhaps the neighbouring countries shared in the joy of the Israelites when they returned out of Babylon and some of them came and joined with them in their praises; but we find not that it was to any such degree as might fully answer this illustrious prophecy, and must conclude that it reaches further, and was fulfilled in that which many other prophecies of the joy of the nations are said in the New-Testament to be fulfilled in, the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ. When they are brought into the church they are brought to give glory to the Lord; then they are to him for a name and a praise, and they make it their business to praise him. He is glorified in them and by them.’ Matthew Henry.

See, the former things have taken place,
    and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
    I announce them to you.’

This is a further reminder that the living God is able to do what the dead gods were incapable of doing. He can accurately foretell things to come before they take place. Fulfilled prophecy is one of the wonders of Scripture and a mark of its supernatural difference from any other book.

‘Among the many amazing evidences that confirm the Bible’s divine origin, surely the wealth of fulfilled prophecies is near the top.’ Dan Hayden.

The ”new things” the Lord is declaring here concern the restoration of Israel, and-in the more distant future-the coming of the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord’.

‘The receipt of former mercies may encourage us to hope for further mercies; for God is constant in his care for his people, and his compassions are still new.’ Matthew Henry

‘I am the Lord; that is my name!
    I will not yield my glory to another
    or my praise to idols.

It takes constant discipline, vigilance, ruthless self-examination and tenacious fight for Christian leaders and preachers – those with any kind of public profile – to remind themselves (and others) that, ‘It’s not about me!’

It is never ‘about me’; could never be ‘about me’. But if we are honest, we can easily make it about ourselves.

Let these words of God be fixed in our minds and engraved on our hearts.

May ‘Hallowed be your Name’ always be our heartbeat.

Pray today for Christian leaders who have to constantly wrestle pride to the ground, upon their knees.

”Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10; see also I Peter 5:6).

Someone said that in God’s Kingdom ‘the branches that hang the lowest bear the most fruit.’

When ‘All Souls’ church, Langham Place, in London, was re-opened, following restoration, in 1977, a new pulpit was given. It bears this inscription:

‘Many friends of John Stott combined to give this pulpit and communion table out of deep gratitude for his dedicated ministry as evangelist, teacher and pastor during 25 years as Rector of All Souls (1950-1975). He taught us to make God’s Word our rule, God’s Spirit our teacher and God’s Glory our supreme concern.’

To God be all the glory!