Isaiah 27

In this past Christmas season, was there a gift that you were excited about giving that was received with casualness or little appreciation.

As a spouse have you tried to openly communicate with and understand your spouse only to receive the cold shoulder or more misunderstanding?

Has your effort to follow Christ in reaching others seem to fall on deaf ears?

Has your effort to pursue your child been met with anger and rebellion

With this kind of reception, do you find yourself thinking: “ I didn’t expect much anyway” or “Fine see if I care” or “I’m honestly ready for them to move out of the house.”

Are you on the agitated side of the care? Someone’s care for you seems/ or is so selfish, overbearing and uncaring?

Young person, do you find yourself rolling your eyes or walking away in a huff as your parents give you a restriction about a phone or bed time?

Are you tired and irritated with someone who is trying to help you change?

Have you faced loss lately (financial, death of loved ones). Through the loss are you starting to feel lok God doesn’t care?

I think this can be at the heart of each of these situations. If our effort is received with rejection, we be begin to wonder if God even cares about our effort or is even working. What is the point of investing in others? If others seem/are obnoxious or oppressive in your life, God’s care probably does not seem that strong. In the bombardment of loss, it may seem like God has no regulator on the events He allows in life.

I don’t know how many of you are ready to all-out declare that God does not care. I think most of us can point to recent incidents of God’s care. But how intense is this care? Does He try hard for a while and just throw up His hands when things don’t work out? Is His care overbearing? If your needs are important to God, is He just casual about the timing of meeting our need? Does He get second winds in His care? What does rejection do to God? Does He pout, shrug it off, or find a way to get even?

God has revealed His care in giving us revelation about His care. He knows our weakness in our ability to interpret the circumstances around us. With Christ in us, we can walk away from here tonight with not just and assent to God’s care (Parent declaring how much, he has done for a child and the child nodding his head) but with an awe that God actually cares so much.

Does God Care?

Isaiah 27:1

Isaiah 27:1 NKJV

In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.

God’ care is fierce in our defence

Look at the description of His weapon— severe, great, strong

Look at the enemy

The New Bible Commentary Psalm 74. A Voice in the Darkness

Pagan mythology saw the sea as the opponent of the creator god and made it the dwelling of anti-god powers, the monster and Leviathan. Marduk, the Babylonian creator-god, was supposed to have defeated these dark forces before the field was clear for him to create the world. But what Marduk did only by repute the Lord did historically when he split the Red Sea

Psalm 74:14

Psalm 74:14 NKJV

You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Psalm 104:26

Psalm 104:26 NKJV

There the ships sail about; There is that Leviathan Which You have made to play there.

The fiercest enemy is at his control.

God clearly calls the enemy what it is- power of the air, twisted, serpent, and dragon

If you don’t believe God is fierce against the enemies of His people, what will you do? Romans 12:19 tells us that vengeance is God’s. That does not mean we are impenetrable from hurt. Look at the care of the One who defends you. In Christ you are free to love and pray for the person.

Isaiah 5:1-6

Isaiah 5:1–6 NKJV

Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.”

Isaiah 27:2-6

Isaiah 27:2–6 NKJV

In that day sing to her, “A vineyard of red wine! I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; Lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day. Fury is not in Me. Who would set briers and thorns Against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of My strength, That he may make peace with Me; And he shall make peace with Me.” Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, And fill the face of the world with fruit.

God’s care is not fickle in our nurturing (v.v. 2-6)

Look at what He calls it and look for what it calls for in v. 2 (pleasant/ singing)

Look at His defense day and night- Picture of the great shepherd

Look at the moment by moment watering. Everything is nurturing for His people

There is not stomping and pouting in His care. He has no wrath. This does not mean He just gotver over things or forgot about it. That would mean, He didn’t really care. He makes the payment for His wrath.

Look at his “ I dare you” attitude toward the enemies.

God’s not interested in stand-off relationships. He is strong and caring enough to be at peace with us.

God nurtures Israel to the point that her health is health for the whole world

Romans 11:15

Romans 11:15 NKJV

For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Picture of Revelation 3

* The rhetorical question arises after the blessing promises offered in the verses above concerning Israel. In view of the blessing why has Israel suffered so much.

Isaiah 27:7-11

Isaiah 27:7–11 NKJV

Has He struck Israel as He struck those who struck him? Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him? In measure, by sending it away, You contended with it. He removes it by His rough wind In the day of the east wind. Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered; And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: When he makes all the stones of the altar Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust, Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand. Yet the fortified city will be desolate, The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down And consume its branches. When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off; The women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding; Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them, And He who formed them will show them no favor.

God’s care acts purposeful in our purifying (v.v. 7-11)

Their judgment is not as fierce as that of their enemies.

The banishment was carefully meted out even thought it was fierce

We see that Israel's rebellion against God's law received atonement. It is covered. This uses the language of Isaiah 6:7 in the purification of Isaiah's sin.

We know from the rest of Scripture that this takes place by Christ's payment and work.

However the emphasis here shows that the atoning work results in the removal of the sinful activity and not just the covering payment of sin.

The fruit of the atonement will be the crushing of the stones of the false altars.

Contrast this with the fruitless end of the enemy

* The reason for this is due to a people that have no discernment. The people that refuse to submit to God become a senseless people. Their senselessness is shown in making idols. They turn to something that cannot do anything for them. They attempt to overthrow God's rule.

* Such defiance leads to the forfeiture of the creative and forming hand of God. One misses the grand design of one who creates massive lands and oceans. One misses the intricate care poured into shaping a baby in a mother's womb. One forfeits the eternal plans of one whose designs never fail.

* Such defiance forgoes the strong compassion and active kindness of God. The restoring embrace is never felt. The eager act of God to extend kindness in fearful and needy situations is abandoned. The smile of God is never seen.

Isaiah 27: 12-13

Isaiah 27:12–13 NKJV

And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

God’s care gives the commanding call for the gathering of His children (v. 12-13)

Emphasize the one by one gleaning

Emphasize the commanding call of the trumpet.

Emphasize the fact that God changes the heart as well as the location

If your effort provide care to a spouse, child, friend, coworker is met with rejection and indifference what should you do in light of this?

Is God’s care fickle toward you. Does God pout

Does God easily quit on people

Is He indifferent to what you are experiencing.

If your are spurning care in your life

Does God take this casually

Do you see it as spurning the very care of God

“One word, Ma'am," he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.