Isaiah 12 -13A
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My Strength and Song is the Lord
My Strength and Song is the Lord
We come back to the book of Isaiah this evening and just last week we looked at the salvation of the Lord coming back to the people.
A branch would arise from the stump of Jessie and while the scene looks bleak, the Lord is at work and will save his people and redeem a remnant of them on the last day.
The Lord loves and will not abandon His people… So lets begin, this is a very short chapter and it is divided into two sections, vv 1-3 and vv 4-6
1 You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
2 “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
The theme of this first section, find Isaiah says that “...He will trust the Lord who is my Salvation.”
And as we open this first section we see that it points to the future. The phrase “in that day”
In that day refers to the time when God saves his people. The people will stand openly and declare the glory of God through the words of praise.
So consider what praise is here....
Praise is the open confession, it is the voice the honors God, lifts up His name and place.
And so when you come to the rest of verse 1, what does David say??
I praise you because you were angry with me, sin had caused a division but the Lord turned away and did not remain angry.
Think of this, God turned away from his anger, Why? He is merciful, God loves his people, He doesn’t hate them.
He will punish because of sin, but here the Psalmist received mercy.
God turned away from His sin and comforted His servant. Again I would tell you God loves His people.
And as you head into verse 2, The psalmist says I am sharing praise and thanksgiving because God is one of
The psalmist uses the word “Behold”, when you see that is it like the Psalmist is expressing his wonder, can you believe it, God is a God of Salvation, his very nature is Salvation.
The salvation the Psalmist experiences is real, it is personal, it is his salvation, what the Lord extended to him.
So understand this, it’s not to be taken casual, God in love extends His salvation to the all people, freely.
And when we experience the salvation of the Lord, we no longer have fear, because we are no longer turned away.
The Lord is His strength and His shield. Just as God was the salvation for the Israelites in the Old Testament, so he is for the future generations.
With verse 3, the community there has great joy because of their salvation, when we speak of God as a well of salvation, you see the imagry of a water well. How long can you draw water from it??? As long as you want, I know wells can go bad or dry up, that is not the case for our God. His salvation is poured out forever and forever...
As God saved people in the past, as long as He delays his coming, he will save people in the future.
Now lets look at verses 4-6
4 And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Now in verses 4-6, we see there is a series of calls for the people to praise God.
In these verses, listen to this Isaiah is calling for them to....
Give thanks to the Lord, call up His name, Make his deed known, proclaim his name and sign praises to the Lord....
They are encouraged to do this…why? They have the joy of experiencing the salvation of the Lord.
They passed from death unto life, they have been delivered.
Let me ask you, can you praise Him? You better!
So through this praise, we are able to worship and spread his name among the nations. We are to retell the story of his great love in hope of others finding Him and loving Him as well.
Now, lets move into chapter 13....
1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
The oracle is like a prophetical call from the Lord, it is His word. So the Lord is allowing Isaiah to see the future of Babylon
What will and will not happen concerning that nation, now we know that Daniel was allowed to see that as well...
Verses 2-3
2 On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.
The message begins really quickly with a call for warriors to gather for battle, Now we are not sure who is call for the banner to be raised, is it a warrior that God is walking with, the king or the prophet???
We are not sure who is calling for them, but God is the one behind the message, God is raising up men to go into battle.
But to call out or to raise a banner, the warriors would see this as the call and gather, getting ready for battle.
The warriors are to start at the gates of the nobles… So the warriors are called to come to the gates and get ready , the nobles gates can refer to the gates of the city themselves, but most likely a particular people to come up against is not mentioned yet. I think their are some texts that speaks to Babylon gates, but we are not told that yet...
God himself speaks in verse 3, God himself explains that the warriors are called,
1st They are consecrated, they are set aside for the Lord’s service here.
2nd They are summoned to execute His anger, they will distribute His punishment on sinful nations. So these people are holy ones, in a sense, consecrated to fight for God, and they are blessed to serve him in battle, to declare His power to the nations.
Verse 4-5
4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
a host for battle.
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
The response to God’s call is overwhelming… There is a great noise because of all the people who are gathering to fight for God.
The place where they meet is not identified yet, but the it is a vast army, the people from the far ends of the earth has gathered to serve as instruments of His wrath in order to bring destruciton to the enemies of God.
There may be heavenly figures (v 5. says end of the heavens) in the army as well, cause it sounds like even some of the warriors seen by Elisha, the heavenly hosts who first for God, along with human troops.
The picture here is that God is going to war with such a army that will be unstoppable.
Can you imagine men and angels, angels like those who Elisha asked God to open the eyes of his servant lik ethat in 2 Kings 6:16-17
16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Wow...
we are going to stop here, and we will pick this back up in 2 weeks, We will not have Wednesday night service next weeks since I am out of town next week.
Pray