New Creation; New Exodus

Text

Isaiah 48 NKJV

1 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, Who are called by the name of Israel, And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; Who swear by the name of the Lord, And make mention of the God of Israel, But not in truth or in righteousness; 2 For they call themselves after the holy city, And lean on the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is His name: 3 “I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that you were obstinate, And your neck was an iron sinew, And your brow bronze, 5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’ 6 “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them. 7 They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’ 8 Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb. 9 “For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another. 12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. 13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together. 14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. 16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me.” 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go. 18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off Nor destroyed from before Me.” 20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, Declare, proclaim this, Utter it to the end of the earth; Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!” 21 And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out. 22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Israel’s sins

Outward religion; trust in ceremony;

But not in truth.

Isaiah 1:15–17 NKJV

15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. 16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

This is the major theme. God has created, rescued and redeemed a people for himself, but they have rebelled against him over and over.

Not the “outsiders”, but the people of God, who use their rituals to oppress and crush the vulnerable.

The stubbornly refused to listen to the prophets. They liked the power and the riches and the control, and used their idols to enslave the weak and powerless.

The foolishness of pride.

“I knew that”

The cry of everyone who doesn’t want to hear it.

It was completely contrary to the expectations of Israel that a Persian, a foreigner, one outside of the covenant, would be the instrument of God’s redemption.

But God does as he pleases.

Why did God use a foreigner? So that they could never say, “Yes, that is exactly what I thought would happen.”

God redeems his people, but only in a way that we cannot claim that our strength did it, that our wisdom and goodness did it, that the idols that we trusted in did it;

Look at the three great acts of redemption in history

The exodus - if at any time, Pharoah had caved and allowed Israel to go, he would have taken the glory for himself. Worse, Israel would have ascribed their freedom to his magnanimous virtue.

The deliverance from Babylon - If God had used any other means for their exodus, they would have said, “This is the power of Marduk; this is the power of Baal; this is the power of kings.”

And the cross - how could anyone have predicted that one?

Luke 9:30–31 NKJV

30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Therefore God will defer his anger -

(verse 9) for his own sake.

Divine forbearance is motivated by something in the divine nature, not outside of God, but within God. His name compels him to restrain his anger.

When you refine silver, you burn away the dross. In refining Israel, it is discovered that they are ALL dross, so God ceases before they are all destroyed.

And instead of destruction, God will redeem.

The astounding redemption of Israel (12-15)

“I am the first and I am the last” - he alone is in absolute control of all of history. He alone declares and acts.

He is the first - he laid the foundations of the earth

So he calls the assembly - the text isn’t clear. The eternal church, Jew and Gentile?

And he makes an astounding statement:

The Lord loves Cyrus and will do his pleasure on Babylon using his servant.

Who would have declared that?

And love? Perhaps there is something more in God’s love than we can fathom.

What does it mean? I don’t know. I know that it doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved, for Cyrus himself will die. And hell is very real.

But perhaps we should simply leave it there, and love our neighbor as God loved Cyrus, even if they are never brought to repentance and faith.

These words are used to shock and astound Israel. God isn’t fitting in their box. They thought that because they had the temple and the holy city that they had the monopoly on God’s love no matter how they acted.

But God’s love can never be used as an excuse to oppress and crush others.

You cannot love God and hate your brother.

The Servant

And now the mysterious servant is further introduced with more clarity.

A speaker who is God - speaking from the beginning, openly - not in secret.

And from the beginning he was there.

And he was sent by the Lord God and his Spirit.

This provides the identity of the servant.

The next section is the necessity of the servant.

Israel has failed.

The covenant was given, and broken.

Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are the stipulations. If they had obeyed the covenant, they would have prospered.

Peace - the promise to Abraham -

they would have had it all. God desired their good.

But God has something greater in mind.

Israel broke that covenant, over and over. Humans always will, for they follow in the footsteps of Adam.

Hosea 6:6–7 NKJV

6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 7 “But like men they transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me.

And so there is only one hope

A new creation, a new exodus, a new people -

A new mediator of the covenant, who takes the curses of the covenant upon himself and keeps the covenant so that the blessings of that covenant might come upon his people.

In order for Israel to know peace, they must be redeemed, for there is no peace for the wicked.

And this redemption will come in a completely unexpected way.

The the crucifixion of the Servant and his resurrection from the dead.

And that is the subject of the next section.