Isaiah 54:1-10 - The Days of Noah

SERMON TEXT

Let’s open our Bibles this morning to the 54th chapter of the book of Isaiah.

I will read the first ten verses this morning because I plan, if the Lord is willing, to look together with you at the second part of this chapter next week.

[READ ISAIAH 54:1-10]

Some of you may remember from the time we spent in the preceding chapter, that chapter 53 is the song about Jesus Christ Himself - the Suffering Servant.

And the chapter ends this way:

Isaiah 53:11–12 “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

As we saw last week, this is nothing less than the propitiation of our sins and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

If the book ended here, it would accurately present the redemption by God of His people, as He planned from all eternity to do.

If chapter 53 tells us about Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, chapter 54 tells us about the NEXT days.

Chapter 54 tells us about Pentecost.

Chapter 54 tells us about the church today.

It is showing us the MEANING behind the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Why it matters to us.

What we should be doing in the days afterward.

What we should be doing BECAUSE of the resurrection.

Now if you will stay with me, I would like you to look down at the ninth verse of our text today:

Isaiah 54:9 ““This is like the days of Noah to me: ”

When you think about the “days of Noah”, what does that bring to mind?

Maybe you think about Genesis 6:5, which records the times directly: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Or you may think of the patience of God with these rebels: 1 Peter 3:20 “because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”

Jesus testified to the apathy toward God in Luke 17:26–27 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

Or the days of Noah might look to the faith of Noah himself: Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

In all these examples, the “days of Noah” are dealt with as negative, held up against the faith of Noah and the righteousness that faith brings.

But here in Isaiah 54:9, the days of Noah, from God’s point of view, mean something altogether different and really positive.

Isaiah 54:9 ““This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.”

The days of Noah here aren’t the centuries before the Flood where Noah preached and built the ark;

They the days AFTER the Flood when Noah himself represented 12.5% of the total population of the earth, one soul out of 8 brought by God through the great Flood.

God here isn’t talking about His judgment on people;

That judgment is passed.

He isn’t talking about His wrath and punishment.

There are only His chosen people remaining, albeit unperfected yet.

He isn’t even talking about the great faith of His people.

The great evil nations of the future will come from this same man, Noah, and his sons, as the nation of Israel and God’s people around the world.

God here is comparing the COVENANT with Noah with the COVENANT He brings through His Risen Son, Jesus Christ.

“As I SWORE...” then

“So [now] I have SWORN...”

God is comparing HIS work in Noah’s days with HIS work following the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

HE SWORE in the days after the Flood that He would never again flood the entire earth with water.

And He has SWORN in these LAST DAYS that His anger, His wrath, has been FOREVER satisfied.

We dare not miss this: in a promise JUST AS SURE as the covenant that caused God to place the rainbow in the sky,

Is the covenant we have, sealed by the Spirit of God, that we have life through faith alone in Christ alone.

How long?

Isaiah 54:10 “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

You can count on this promise long after the mountains and hills have eroded grain by grain.

The steadfast love of God for His people will endure forever.

We call this, commonly, the Perseverance of the Saints.

But Isaiah shows us the REAL perseverance, what keeps God’s saints with Him, is the steadfast love of God HOLDING us to Himself.

Perseverance, at its root, is still a work of the Spirit of God.

It is God fulfilling His covenant, stated here, to His people.

I was shaking my head yesterday listening to a man who believes he teaches “soteriology”.

Because in his system, man is the one who grasps God,

The one who is responsible to hold onto God.

It is man who chooses, man who uses his innate goodness to reach out to God for salvation.

How tenuous!

How dangerous!

Parents: Let me ask you:

If you and your child were walking across a high bridge, and your child lost their footing and began slipping over the edge,

Would you extend just one finger for them to grab onto,

Or would you grasp their arms or body to bring them back up?

Would you just put one finger down and urge the child to hold on with all THEIR strength?

Or would YOU put forward all YOUR strength to make them safe?

Between you and your child, whose strength do you trust more.

Whose strength, then, do you think our loving heavenly Father relies on for OUR perseverance?

We don’t rely on anything so feeble as our own strength.

Our strength fails.

Our strength has limits.

God’s strength, God’s promise never fails.

That’s the point Paul is making when he quotes THIS chapter in the letter to the Galatians.

He quotes the first verse in this chapter:

Isaiah 54:1 ““Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.”

Listen to Paul’s use of this chapter:

Galatians 4:24–28 “Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.”

I’m not going into the entire teaching of Galatians here, but I want you to notice one thing:

Paul knows this chapter is about the NEW COVENANT in Jesus Christ.

And this NEW COVENANT is based in the heavenly Jerusalem, not on some mere rock here on earth.

Even Isaiah, who speaks very often of Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem and the earthly temple, doesn’t use the word Zion anywhere in this chapter.

In fact, it is nearly the end of chapter 59 where Isaiah once again speaks of this earthly mountain, Zion.

The covenant and the kingdom he has in view here is the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, calling to our minds:

Revelation 11:15 “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.””

I had someone recently ask me why I believe in Covenant Theology, the idea that God’s dealings with man are on the basis of His covenants.

I replied that I believe it because that’s the way the Holy Spirit DESCRIBES God’s work toward man.

The Adamic covenant - the first covenant with man.

Noah

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Moses

David

And finally, the NEW Covenant through Jesus Christ.

That’s the covenant that takes away sin.

That’s the covenant that makes us at peace with God.

That’s the covenant that ensures His people eternal life with Him.

That’s the covenant Isaiah tells us to SING about:

Isaiah 54:1 ““Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.”

It’s this new Covenant that will burst the temple at the seams:

Isaiah 54:2–3 ““Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.”

I remind you that the temple began as a tent, a tabernacle, set up for God’s people in the wilderness during the Exodus.

It was a huge tent by any measure, and a large building.

There were different nested areas called “Courts”:

At the very center, there was the Holy of Holies, the place where the Ark of the Covenant with God was kept.

The high priest could only enter that place once per year to offer blood as a sacrifice.

Surrounding this, there was the Holy Place, where the priests did their daily work.

The table of showbread and the lampstand were here.

Still, only the priests were allowed here.

Outside that was the Court of Israel, intended that just Jewish MEN would come there.

Then there was the Court of the Women, the place where Jewish women could come to worship.

And then outside that was the Court of the Gentiles, where anyone from anywhere could come to worship God.

Those of you who are with us on Wednesday nights may remember it was the Court of the Gentiles that had become crowded with vendors, and it was these vendors Jesus ejected form the temple.

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think that part of the reason He booted the moneychangers and livestock vendors is to “enlarge the tent”.

To make room for those from the Gentiles, from the nations, who would be coming to God through Him.

He declared this should be a house of prayer - and where He was standing was not the Court of Israel, but the Court of the Gentiles.

We know now that even if the temple in Jerusalem still stood, it would be far too small to contain those who have come to God through Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Even on the day of Pentecost and the days following, the temple would have burst at the seams to contain so many who had been brought by the Holy Spirit to faith in Jesus Christ.

I must move on.

I would quickly bring your attention to verse 5:

Isaiah 54:5 “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”

Church - your Maker is your husband.

The Holy One is your Redeemer.

The Holy redeeming the unholy, the warped, the wicked.

Never forget that!

What we do and who we are represents our great lover, the One who gave Himself for us.

If we love, it’s because He first loved us.

If we obey, it’s because He freed us from our slavery to sin.

If we live, it’s because He has made us alive.

If we hope, it’s because He IS our hope of glory.

If we stand firm, it’s because He stands with us, never leaving nor forsaking us.

If we face death, we do so in the hope of resurrection to unending life with Him.

For the believer, there will NEVER, in all eternity, be a time where you will be separated from him.

For us here, this is as far as we shall ever be from Him - absent in the body but present in His Spirit.

But once this sinful world has ceased and has been remade, purified, there will never be a moment where we will be separated from our beloved Christ.

What God has joined together, no one may separate.

Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Unfortunately, I have left very little time for verses 7-8:

Isaiah 54:7–8 “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.”

I will confess, there are many applications of these verses, many opportunities for fulfillment throughout history.

But for us today, as we consider them in light of the New Covenant, I would like for you to consider perhaps the highest meaning:

Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Galatians:

Galatians 2:19–20 “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When Christ was crucified, our sin was judged and paid for by His blood,

But our life was also redeemed, ransomed, by that same blood sacrifice.

That is why in Romans, Paul can say:

Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Colossians 2:12–14 “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

For God’s elect, chosen from before the beginning of the world, we all lived in terrible sin until that moment where this crucifixion occurred in our own lives,

Where we were converted from death into life.

It was in that moment of our life prior to conversion that God’s face toward his elect was not kind, but wrathful, angry.

It is that state in which people all around us live, not knowing the hope that God has given through Jesus Christ until they come face to face with the gospel.

The promise of God is that from all over the earth, in every place where the gospel is preached, He has His elect who will respond to His Holy Spirit’s call.

Not just in good neighborhoods,

Not just in bad ones, either.

EVERYWHERE the gospel is proclaimed,

In your job,

In your school,

In your home,

On the streetcorner,

Even in the pulpit

God has His elect, His sheep, He will bring to Himself.

And they will know the everlasting love of God as well.