Sermon Tone Analysis

Some of you are familiar with Henry Blackaby.

He is a popular speaker in Southern Baptist circles and is the author of Experiencing God book and study course which has sold over 3-million copies.

In Experiencing God, Blackaby confesses, /“When I was first learning how to walk with God, I depended too much on other people.

I would run to other people and say, ‘Do you think this is really God?

Here is what I think.

What do you think?’

I would unconsciously, depend on them rather than on the relationship I had with God.”/

/“Finally, I had to say, ‘I am going to go to the Lord and clarify what I am absolutely convinced He is saying to me.

Then, I am going to proceed and watch to see how God affirms it.

... As He speaks to us, He reveals Himself so we can have faith to trust Him in the assignment He calls us to ... God reveals His ways so that He can accomplish His work through us in a way that He gets all the glory.”/

If you’ve never gone though Experiencing God I encourage you to do so.

Long ago, Israel had the same problem that Henry Blackaby confessed to.

They could not understand what God was saying, and they were not sure He was even speaking to them.

And if he was speaking to them, what was He trying to say, because whatever it was, they didn’t understand.

How could the true God of the universe allow His people to lose their nation, their homeland, and their temple?

How could He stand silently by while his people went into foreign exile?

How could His promise of salvation and deliverance include a foreign king like Cyrus of Persia as his anointed one rather than a king from David’s line?

I suspect that as the Jews are being marched to Babylon to become slaves, that they see their world as having gone completely mad and out of control.

Had God left them to their destruction at the hand of their enemies?

Had God turned his back on them and forgotten that they were his chosen people?

Had he forgotten his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

How could any good thing come of this captivity?

In today’s world our daily newspapers are filled with one catastrophe after another, and, each day brings news of greater tragedies around the world.

It is easy for us to get caught up in the events of these last days and to wonder—like the Jews of the Captivity— if the world has gone completely mad and out of control.

But in the midst of all the chaos and uncertainty, we must rest assured in the immutable fact that God has the “chaos” under control.

What most of Israel didn’t understand, and what much of the church today has forgotten, is that God hasn’t forgotten his promises, and that he still has all things in his hand.

Though the world seems to be falling apart at the seams, it is still under His providential control.

He is bringing about a master plan that will fulfill every word that he has spoken and not one prophecy will fail!

This chapter reminds us that God is sovereign over this world and providentially brings His will to pass.

!

I. GOD’S POWER TO DIRECT HISTORY vv.

1-4

* /“This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.

I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.”/ (Isaiah 45:1–4, NIV84)

#. in the very first verse we find that God is going to anoint a man named Cyrus to accomplish His will for Israel and ultimately His redemptive plan for sinners

#. it was God who appointed Babylon, and now Persia, to be both the rod of correction upon the backs of God’s wayward children, and to be the source of their deliverance as well

#.

God was going to put Cyrus in the right place at the just the right moment in history and upon the throne of the most powerful nation on earth, just to bring about God’s plan for his chosen people in bringing them home again

#. that would lead eventually to a miraculous conception in Nazareth and the birth of Jesus

!! A. PROPHECY DECLARED, PROPHECY FULFILLED, PROPHECY DECLARED

#.

Isaiah began his prophetic ministry in about 740 B.C. /in the year that King Uzziah died/ and he prophesied for fifty years

#. the first thirty-nine chapters focus on Assyria and the geo-political events of Isaiah’s own day

#. he repeatedly warns both Judah and Israel of Assyria’s growing political and military power

#.

Isaiah warns Israel that unless they repent of their idolatry, God is going to use Assyria to humble the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:1-6)

#. they refused to listen and God did what He said He would do

#. the Northern Kingdom of Israel was attacked and taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

* /“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.

He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute.

But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.

Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison.

The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.

He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.”/

(2 Kings 17:1–6, NIV84)

#. it looked like Jerusalem was next

#. it would actually be another 136 years before Jerusalem would fall, but just as Isaiah had prophesied, Babylon came sweeping in like a flood, destroyed the nation, sacked its towns and cities and carried Judah’s citizen off into captivity

#.

Judah and Jerusalem would lay desolate for 70 years

#. but God had made a promise through the Prophet Micah that the Savior would be born in the little town of Bethlehem

#. so God had to bring His people back to the Promised Land and He would use the Persian king Cyrus to do it

!! B. PROPHECY PEEKING INTO THE FUTURE

#. in verse 1, Isaiah is referring to a kingdom that does not yet exist and to a king who will not be born for another 176 years and it would be 210 years before the Persians, under Cyrus would conquer Babylon

#. for this reason, many critical bible scholars are convinced that Isaiah could not have written chapters 40-66

#. surely we can’t actually be expected to believe that the Bible would call a man by name almost 200 years before he was born!

#. the theory is that the Book of Isaiah actually existed as two or even three separate documents that were eventually put together—

#. that a Prophet named Isaiah who lived in the 8th century B.C. wrote the first thirty-nine chapters

#. that a disciple of Isaiah who lived in the 6th century B.C. wrote chapters 40-55 some time toward the end of the Babylonian captivity

#. that a an unknown group of authors wrote chapters 56-66 some time shortly after the end of the Babylonian captivity

#. in the minds of critical scholars this is the only way to explain the name of Cyrus being found in the passage

#. for over 100 years this view has been taught in all the major seminaries around the world

#.

there is, however, absolutely no manuscript evidence to support this view

#. when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, among them was a complete scroll of the Prophet Isaiah that was dated to 100 B.C.—1,000 earlier than any other copy we had at the time

#. it was nearly identical to our modern Isaiah and amazingly has no breaks between chapters 30 and 40 or between chapters 54 and 55

#. so at least one hundred years before Christ, Isaiah existed as one book

#.

God’s ability to reveal future events through His prophets should be a comfort to our faith and not a hindrance to it

#.

listen to Jesus ...

* /“I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen.

But this is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.’

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.

I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.””/ (John 13:16–20, NIV84)

!! C. A DIVINELY EMPOWERED KING

#.

God will anoint a heathen King as an instrument used to bring about His will

* v. 1 /“This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of ... “/

#.

He reminds Cyrus that it is the God of Israel who has given him the power to rule and reign

#.

God refers to Cyrus as His anointed one because he was raised up by God to do great things in the world

#. that included restoring the Jews to their homeland

#.

Cyrus has power because he was to use this power to bless God’s people

#.

Cyrus would have unprecedented political and military power because it was God’s will for him to have it

* v. 1 /“ ... whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: ... “/

#. the act of clasping the king by the hand suggests Cyrus will not fail, nor will any be able to thwart him

#.

Cyrus became King of Persia in 559 B.C. and twenty years later in 539 B.C. he conquered Babylon without a fight (Daniel 5)

#. all of this is alluded to in vv.

2-3

#.

Babylon was a strong city

* ILLUS According to the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in 450 B.C., Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign had walls 300 feet high and 25 feet thick with foundations that extended 32 feet underground.

Two four-horse chariots could pass each other on the parapets .

There were 250 towers along the walls that were 450 feet high.

The gates of those towers were made of bronze.

Herodotus said: /"Babylon surpasses in splendor any city of the known world.”/

#. the people felt extremely secure within the city, so that when Babylon came under the siege of the Medo-Persian army under Cyrus, it was almost a joke to those that were living in the city

* ILLUS.