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Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
    say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.

²² “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Although it still lies in the distant future, Isaiah again writes about the deliverance of the Jewish captives from Babylon. Once more we see it depicted in terms of a ‘second exodus’. As the Lord led His people out of Egypt, and provided for them supernaturally on the way to the Promised Land (Ex.17:6; Nu.20:11), so He will bring them back through the desert from Babylon, and they too will know His remarkable, abundant and miraculous provision.

This rescue, however, is but a foretaste of the greater escape from the tyranny of sin, death and the devil, to be provided by Jesus in His death on the Cross. There He was wounded for us all and living water poured from His opened side (John 19:34; see also 1 John 5:6-12). It flows still for all who will receive it. This is what is ‘good’ about ‘Good Friday.’

But there was a preacher who used to point out that the gospel is ‘bad news before it is good news.’ The chapter ends on a note of severe warning. If we will not listen to God, and come to Him, and receive what He offers, we cannot experience for ourselves the goodness of Good Friday.’ Derek Kidner says ‘…the high price of self-will is stated and re-stated as nothing less than a farewell to peace (18,22).’ (New Bible Commentary’, p.660). The word ”peace” includes health, security, prosperity and above all fellowship with God and eternal salvation.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you so much that you have enabled me to personally enjoy the goodness of Good Friday. Thank you Jesus for dying for me. Help me to joyfully proclaim the great news of redemption.

This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,
    your well-being like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your descendants would have been like the sand,
    your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
    nor destroyed from before me.”

There is an ”If only” lament in this passage. So much is dependant upon listening to God and responding positively to His Word. See how much blessing we forfeit if we fail to pay attention.

I love this quote from Dallas Willard, and I long for it to be true of my own experience, don’t you?

”Spiritual people are not those who engage in certain spiritual practices; they are those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God.”

Barry Webb writes about ”…the serious nature of failure to listen to God; it shuts us out from the peace of God. As in chapters 40-55 in general, Isaiah has been speaking here of a situation that was to emerge after his own lifetime. As far as the basic sins and failures he describes are concerned, however, he may just as well have been looking about him, or even speaking directly to the church in our own day and age. We need no great imagination to recognise ourselves in his stinging rebukes. Sadly, the sins of the people of God do not alter.” (Isaiah, p.192)

“Come together, all of you, and listen...Come near me and listen to this…”

”Deep calls to deep…” (Ps.42:7)

If you hear the call of God to come close (closer) to Him, don’t refuse Him. As we will see, to fail to ”listen” to God is to rob ourselves of much spiritual good.

Many years ago I was given a biography of a South African preacher, William Duma. (You can still read about him online). He had a powerful ministry in evangelism, healing and deliverance. But the thing I most remember from his story is that he had, what he called, his ‘trysting place’ up in the hills, and he would disappear for days at a time to just be alone with God. That’s where the power of his ministry lay. He knew it. So when there came a time in his life where, through over-busyness, he began to neglect his prayer life, he experienced a loss of power and knew why.

In his own words:

”Through the years, at 4.00 a.m., by appointment with my Lord, I had been fed by the Hand of God. The busyness of preparation ate into my early morning appointment with God. Less and less time was spent in deep communion with God. I told myself I was praying earnestly for the campaigns. Vaguely at first, I realized […] [it] had tailed off…

…I grieved for the spiritual capital which had drained away because my first eager communion with God at daybreak had been shortened, if not replaced, by campaign planning. Those recollections broke my heart and I wept into the pillows.”

Thankfully, that was not the end of the story. It is one well-worth reading. But it underlines how precious God’s invitation is to ”Come near…”Him.

“Come near me and listen to this:

“From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
    at the time it happens, I am there.”

And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me,
    endowed with his Spirit.

“Many men today are running on adrenaline and not anointing.” Larry Stockstill

Barry Webb points out that God’s people clearly needed something more than a change of address (i.e the return from Babylon), so it means they also needed something more than the mission of Cyrus. As we have seen previously, he could only be a ‘temporary messiah’. The way is thus prepared for ‘the Servant of the LORD’ to come to the fore again in chapter 49.

‘…the spiritual state of the exiles, which is highlighted as acute in chapter 48, is answered by the reappearance of the Servant of the LORD, at first enigmatically in 48:16, and then plainly in chapter 49.’ (‘Isaiah’, p.192).

The world needs Jesus.

Isaiah 42:1 begins like this:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.

If we are correct in seeing 48:16 as a reference to this ”servant” we note the reiteration of the point about Him being anointed by God.

As we often say, if Jesus needed the power of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfil His earthly ministry, how much more do we?

“There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God’s work without God’s power. A man working without this unction, a man working without this anointing, a man working without the Holy Ghost upon him, is losing time after all.” Dwight L. Moody

“Come together, all of you, and listen:
    Which of the idols has foretold these things?
The Lord’s chosen ally
    will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
    his arm will be against the Babylonians.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken;
    yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
    and he will succeed in his mission.

This is a further reference to Cyrus. Israel may not have liked the idea of God using a pagan ruler, nor understood it. But the sovereign Lord who created the earth and heavens – and, we might add, they all ”stand up” at His call (12,13) – has the right to call and use anyone He chooses. Again, we see that God did what the idols could not: He ”foretold these things”.

Note the repetition of ”I” in verse 15. The key to the success of Cyrus’ mission would not be Cyrus but God, the Lord.

This is basis for success in any mission: God must call and equip you.

My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they all stand up together.

This reminds me of that seemingly throwaway line in Genesis 1:16:

”He also made the stars.”

When I made the step up from Junior to senior school, I found (as you possibly did) that there was a palpable difference in atmosphere and tone. It felt much more strange and scary. I mean, when I was in the Juniors, I’d always respected the Head. But at High School, when a head (or deputy head) walked into the room, you had to stand. Perhaps even more intimidating, were one or two other teachers, who had a certain presence, and who made it clear, ‘Whenever I walk into the room, You stand!’ I appreciate that they might not have bothered some of the other students, but they frightened me. They inspired a certain awe.

I love the picture painted here, in Isaiah, of God’s personal involvement in the creation of ”the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). See the double reference to His ”hand”. Note how all He has made stands in His presence in response to His call. Truly, ‘our God is an awesome God.’ Some human teachers may have worked out how to cultivate a certain aura, but the Lord of all is truly to be ‘feared’ – i.e. to be revered and worshipped.

“Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
    I am the first and I am the last.

Again we hear the call to ”Listen”. But did they? Will we?

As we have seen, there was a perpetual tug-of-war going on in the nation with, ”Jacob” regularly winning out over ”Israel”, if I may put it that way. (We ourselves know something of this battle. It is internal, and is a relentless fight between the old nature and the Holy Spirit).

The key to becoming what God wants us to be is in Him: it is in our relationship with Him, in knowing Him. The second half of verse 12 takes us pack to the Lord’s revelation of Himself to Moses (Ex.3:14), but also points us forward to Jesus (Rev.22:13). He is eternal and self-sufficient, and we find our sufficiency in Him.

It is only in God and because of Him that we can grow spiritually: become less ”Jacob” and more ”Israel”, we might say. The God who calls is also the One who equips for the fulfilling of His purposes

PRAYER: Lord God, help me to look to you and not to my own resources. May my mind and heart be more and more filled with You. Please be more real to me than anyone or anything. Dominate my whole life, and guide the entire course of my earthly journey.

‘From now on I will tell you of new things,
    of hidden things unknown to you.
⁷ They are created now, and not long ago;
    you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
    “Yes, I knew of them.”
⁸ You have neither heard nor understood;
    from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
    you were called a rebel from birth.
⁹ For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
    for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
    so as not to destroy you completely.
¹⁰ See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
    I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
    How can I let myself be defamed?
    I will not yield my glory to another.

The ”new things” God has in mind here include the ‘second exodus’: the deliverance of the Jews from exile, the restoration of Israel, and ultimately the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. Probably the reference to them being created ”now” (7) means ‘in God’s mind’ – so they are going to become a reality.

Derek Kidner notes God’s patience with His people here, and says it is ‘unmerited’ (9), ‘constructive’ (10) and ‘resolute’ (11). Even though they deserve to be cut off, He will ”delay” His wrath. However, He will refine them in ”the furnace of affliction” (10). Babylon would be this ”furnace” to them, as Egypt had been centuries earlier (Deut.4:20).

In all His dealings with His people, God has in mind His own ”praise” (9) and ”glory” (11). If He had totally destroyed His people, the nations would have mocked and said, ‘He can’t look after His own.’

The God of the Bible is not, as Richard Dawkins suggested, an egomaniac. If He is God; indeed if He is the God described in the pages of Scripture, He deserves the praise and thanks and adoration of the whole world. But as C.S. Lewis pointed out, in calling us to worship Him God is giving us a priceless gift. Lewis noted that when we see beauty, whether, for example, a work of art, a breath-taking view, or hear great music, our enjoyment of it is not complete unless we can express our appreciation. The worship of God, which is for His glory, also turns out to be for our good.

John Piper puts it well when he writes that ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

Thought: ”For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…” (Rom.1:21).

I foretold the former things long ago,
    my mouth announced them and I made them known;
    then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
⁴ For I knew how stubborn you were;
    your neck muscles were iron,
    your forehead was bronze.
⁵ Therefore I told you these things long ago;
    before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
    “My images brought them about;
    my wooden image and metal god ordained them.”
⁶ You have heard these things; look at them all.
    Will you not admit them?

When I was a boy, one of the comics I devoured was called ‘The Dandy’. In it there was a character named ‘Brassneck’ – a rather fun and loveable metallic type figure. I very much enjoyed reading about him.

But there was nothing funny or attractive about Israel’s resistance of God.

Again, the Lord speaks about all He foretold. He had given them many promises that had already come to pass (e.g. the ‘exodus’ from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and their subsequent growth and prosperity as a nation). He did this so that they would not be able to say that their gods had brought all of this about. But then, as now, people were largely unwilling to face up to the evidence (see 6b). Derek Kidner calls them ‘determined sceptics’.

‘There are none so blind as those who will not see.’

But they claimed (1,2) to be the Lord’s people!

PRAYER: Lord, have mercy on us please. Keep us from being ‘unbelieving believers’.