The Only Giver of Life

17 “The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in desolate heights, And fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. 19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, The myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine And the box tree together, 20 That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the Lord has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21 “Present your case,” says the Lord. “Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. 22 “Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; Or declare to us things to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together. 24 Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination. 25 “I have raised up one from the north, And he shall come; From the rising of the sun he shall call on My name; And he shall come against princes as though mortar, As the potter treads clay. 26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? And former times, that we may say, ‘He is righteous’? Surely there is no one who shows, Surely there is no one who declares, Surely there is no one who hears your words. 27 The first time I said to Zion, ‘Look, there they are!’ And I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings. 28 For I looked, and there was no man; I looked among them, but there was no counselor, Who, when I asked of them, could answer a word. 29 Indeed they are all worthless; Their works are nothing; Their molded images are wind and confusion.

Two sections:

17-20 - the promise of water for the needy

21-29 - the emptiness of idols

Water for the Needy

The context - the exodus and the promised exodus from Babylon -

The earthly words used to point to spiritual reality.

Earthly - in the desert there was no water. In the desert, there was nothing that the people could do about it. In the desert, the temptation was to call upon idols, seeking to control the power of the gods, rather than trust in the promise of Jehovah.

The power of the idols. No one believed that an image of wood, stone, or gold was actually a god. What they believed was that it HOUSED the god, and if they did the ceremonies just right, they could harness the power of the god and use that power for their advantage.

Jehovah, the God of Israel, is personal. Unpredictable. Uncontrollable. And therefore, in the minds of alienated people, untrustworthy. You couldn’t really count on him to take care of things because it wasn’t in YOUR power. You had to trust and rest, and that is the hardest thing for the spirit of man to do.

No amount of ritual, magic, or images could bring water up in the desert.

But these earthly images point to a spiritual reality.

In the ancient world, rivers were the source of life. Towns and cities were built on the rivers.

Rivers were viewed as the power of the gods. The gods lived at the heads of the rivers.

And this is not all untrue. There was a grain of truth. In Eden, God dwelt with his people. From Eden, the rivers flowed. There was life and beauty and peace and rest and belonging.

And man was cast out of Eden, away from God’s presence and his “life-giving water”

The river flowing in the desert is the restoration of all things - the new creation and restored fellowship with God.

This water theme is seen throughout Isaiah, and points back to Eden.

We spoke last time about the gentle waters of shiloam, compared with the waters of judgment. Water can either be gentle and life giving, or destructive and chaotic.

But for God’s people, water is life. It cleanses, it makes alive, it brings fruit.

It symbolizes the Holy Spirit, the life-giving presence of God. And the Holy Spirit is “poured out” on the church, the Bride of Christ.

Therefore the one who is blessed is the one who thirsts after the living God (Psalm 42:1

Psalm 42:1 NKJV

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

Matthew 5:6 NKJV

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

Isaiah 55:1 NKJV

1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.

John 7:37–39 NKJV

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

These are tremendous promises - all that we seek, all that we long for, the restoration of everything, before the thorns and thistles took over the ground.

The life of love and light and peace, free from shame and fear

The kingdom of God bursting forth and shining through history, in reality -

And all of it echoes the question of the Jews in Luke 20. “By what authority do you do these things?”

That is the next section

The emptiness of idols

The first thing to know - the Bible assumes a spiritual realm. There are angelic beings in God’s heavenly “family” that the scripture refers to as “gods”, or sons of God.

Psalm 82:1 NKJV

1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.

But these are spiritual created beings. Many of them fell and became the demonic spirits. The scripture teaches that these demonic spirits were the gods of the heathen. The history of the world reflects the warfare going on in heaven, especially before Christ.

Daniel 10:18–21 NKJV

18 Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me. 19 And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!” So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” 20 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth. (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince.

When Jesus conquered sin and death, He is given all authority over all the spiritual realms as well as the earthly realms. There is a change since Christ rose from the dead.

Ultimately, that is what all of these chapters are about - the gospel.

The gods of the heathen were indeed spiritual beings who existed. They were given a certain amount of power of kingdoms, but they were never given the power to decree the future.

Some points - creatures can make certain predictions, that may come true

We can predict what we will do. tonight, I will make dinner.

We can predict certain orderly scientific events. That is the basis of science.

We might even be able to predict what a certain person will do based upon our knowledge.

The gods of the heathen - the demonic realm - have the same and even greater rational ability. But they are all still creatures. They do not have autonomous authority over creation.

So Jehovah is challenging them. You think that your gods are gods like me - Do they interpret all of history from the beginning, show how it flows through God’s plan of redemption? Do they have a plan to return to Eden? Do they decree the future?

Can they bring water out of the rock? Did the golden calves open the Red Sea?

Did they say, “I’m going to bring forth trees in the desert” and then do it?

Do they say, “I’m going to rise from the dead” and then do it.

They are creatures. They are liars. They cannot save. They cannot hear. They cannot teach.

And especially the blocks of wood and stone and gold. Those are the works of men’s hands. They don’t bring salvation or destruction either one. They simply sit there until you carry them to another place.

But Jehovah calls kings to move and they move.

He will call one from the north (the direction that invaders came into Israel)

“Call upon my name” - fulfilled in Ezra 1:1

Ezra 1:1 NKJV

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

Verse 26 - have the idols declared plans from the beginning? Do they declare and show their intentions?

Surely - particles of non-existence -

Shows, declares, hears

Then, verse 27, the contrast.

“First, to Zion, behold! Behold! And to Jerusalem, a bringer of good tidings to you”

God’s love and care for his people, and his declarations and counsel set him apart from all the idols of the heathen.

HE alone is bringing about the new creation. This is what we long for. But we don’t turn to idols to speed up the process.