Propping or Propped?

Scripture Introduction:

Ever see somebody doing a thing…using a product…or something and you just look at them and think “you’re doing that wrong”. Well, I’ve had my fair share of those things where I’ve been the silly guy using something the wrong way. You misuse a product and assume that it’s defective. Several illustrations I could use but here is one that’s a little silly.

Aluminum foil. This thing isn’t made right…but the problem is…I’m not using it correctly.

During the time of Isaiah something similar was happening. It’s not that they completely stopped believing that God existed. Or even that He was a big God and could help. What was really happening is what you’d call syncretism. God became one among many. One tool in your drawer.

I think Ray Ortlund sums it up well when he says,

The spiritual answers and resources offered in the covenant seemed unreal in the face of visible dangers. The faith outlined in Deuteronomy seemed irrelevant, and the God of the exodus and Sinai remote.

They weren’t irreligious. In fact they were incredibly spiritual. But the problem was that they placed Yahweh in one sphere of their lives and turned to other things for other stuff.

You see they were sandwiched geographically. They had powerful armies all around them. They were a tiny nation. A little worm on the grand scale of things. They had to navigate scary, real-world scenarios. If they make the wrong move then they could easily exterminated by these nations. And so it didn’t seem like their book of faith—the Torah—had the answers they were looking for. They needed a military guide. They didn’t need Deuteronomy they needed Sun Tzu (soon zoo’s) Art of War.

What do you do when your situation seems insurmountable and the God you worship doesn’t seem to have come through for you? Well, if you are the Israelites during the time of Isaiah you turn to other gods, you turn to other nations for help.

But what happens when you do this and yet you keep your identity as a God-fearing nation? What is the result of that? The result is that the nations assume that your God must be completely impotent. So in this moment it seemed as if the Israelite god is much weaker than the gods of the Babylonians and the gods of the Assyrians.

But in reality it’s a bit like the guy who thought his product was defective. The problem is that he wasn’t using it correctly. It wasn’t a problem with the product. In the same way it’s not as if the God of Israel is less than the gods of Babylon or Assyria or anything else that people can make up. The problem is that the Israelites had turned God into something that he wasn’t. They actually related to him just as the other nations related to their gods—it was still and idolatrous relationship they just called the god they made up Yahweh. In fact if you view God as a “product” of sorts then you aren’t viewing him rightly.

And then the real Yahweh get’s blamed for being incompetent. But the problem is that their false gods have let them down…not the real God. And so that’s what we have in Isaiah 41. God, the real God, is bringing the nations into a debate and comparing Himself to their gods, their idols. And he is doing this for two reasons. First, it’s going to be inviting the nations into repentance and belief. Secondly, it’s to strengthen the people of God and let them know they absolutely can trust Yahweh—the real God—to come through for them.

Listen in:

Isaiah 41:1-20

Now why am I telling you all of this? I’m telling you this because we often find ourselves in similar situations where it seems as if the moment calls for something a bit more than what the gospel has to offer. It’s a bit more than God’s Word can handle. We need perhaps something else. Something a bit more earthy…less in the clouds. We need to create a bit of our own help from somewhere.

This is what the Bible consistently calls spiritual adultery. And I think Ray Ortlund is correct--”spiritual adultery entails more than religious offenses; whenever God is not trusted fully and obeyed exactly, including the realm of politics, his people deny the adequacy of his care and protection, so that they fend for themselves, on their own terms.”

But I believe Isaiah 41 will tell us that not only is this spiritual adultery it’s completely foolish. This text is calling us to see why we should trust God as He really is, instead of the many created god’s.

Now I’ve chosen those words very intentionally. God as He really is. Ultimately we find this as revealed to us in His Word. But God is who He is even apart from His revelation to us. God is. Period. God is not the sum total of what He has revealed…He is even more than He has revealed. And…to make your brains smoke a little…that truth is how God has chosen to reveal Himself. He hasn’t given us everything of who He is. If he did we’d be completely undone. But God is. He is self-existent.

I also chose the phrase “many created gods” intentionally. Just because you get the name of the one true God correctly doesn’t mean that you’re worshipping God as he actually is. In as much as the god I’m worshipping doesn’t match up to God as He actually is I’m engaging in a form of idolatry. I’m calling God by the right name…that’s good…but I’m not engaging Him as He really is. And that’s just as much idolatry as if I called the god I worshipped The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

So why does all of this matter? It matters because as I said earlier we are in a somewhat similar cultural moment to the Israelites as they were when Isaiah the prophet spoke these words to them. And we have the same temptation to make gods for ourselves—and these gods are always always always going to fall over. They cannot stand on their own. They cannot stand in the storms, they cannot withstand the fire, they cannot hold up under scrutiny, they will always collapse....and yes, that’s the case even if you’ve been calling that collapsed god Yahweh.

A god who cannot stand up in the storm, a god who cannot withstand trials, or scrutiny, or a god who needs human beings to prop him up is no god at all and it’s an enterprise doomed to failure. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a true God. It just means that this one you’ve been making up has been exposed.

But here in Isaiah 41 I believe God—the real true God—gives us three reasons why He alone should be trusted…trusted as He really is.

Everything that I’ve said so far is really what is happening in verse 1. 40:31 God calls upon the Israelites to trust him…those who wait on the LORD…those who trust in YHWH as he really is…these ones will renew their strength…now here in verse 1 God is calling the nations to observe this. He’s saying, “now you guys gather up all your strength…bring everything you’ve got here…share your case…and we’ll see which one is worth putting your trust in.” That’s what is happening in verse 1. And now the rest of it is what’s given as evidence for why God alone is to be trusted

Because God alone moves history

Verses 2-4 is likely a reference to Cyrus the great. Now this is absolutely astonishing what is taking place here. Cyrus is going to be named in a couple of chapters. He was the great leader of the Persians. And his reign was from 560 BC to 530BC. They are the ones who ended up capturing the Babylonians. But let me tell you why this is amazing. Isaiah the prophet died somewhere around 700BC. When Isaiah wrote these words Babylon wasn’t the talk of the town. Assyria was. And now through Isaiah the prophet God is telling them the name of the guy who is going to conquer the Babylonians.

So he is challenging them and saying, “are your gods able to do that”? They able to not only tell you about the guy who is rising up—but actually be the one who “stirs him up”? See verse 4. “I, the LORD, the first and with the last; I am he.”

That’s God saying that He is self-existent. I like how one commentator put it:

He is not just a part of the process, as the pagan gods are. Rather, he stands outside of time, calling it into existence, directing its path, and bringing it to an end. “I am he” is a statement both of self-existence and self-identity. Reflecting Exodus 6:3, God says he is the One who “is.” Every other life form on the planet is derivative. But he is the One who has neither beginning nor end. He simply “is.”

But look at the contrast here. Verses 5-7. Here is the scene. The coastlands are afraid because they are hearing of this other great leader coming from the east…Cyrus…and so they all get together. They are developing their “What are we going to do about Cyrus support group.”

But notice what is happening. They see it. They see that their idols, their gods are defenseless. They are losing hope here. But what do they do. And this is so important for us to grasp. Because God will do that with us…and these are such important moments. This is a crisis of belief. It’s a crisis of faith. A crisis of hope moment.

When the rug is pulled out from under us and we see the emptiness of the god (lower case g) that we were trusting in, the worldview that we constructed, when it all starts to collapse, we are in such an important moment. Here in this text we see one path that you can take in this moment. Dig in. Create a bigger and better idol. Idol 2.0. Or maybe idol model number 573.6 at this point. Maybe if I just tweak it a little then it’ll be able to stand.

You see this crisis is an invitation from the God of the universe for us to forsake our faulty worldview…our “renew our own strength” way of thinking and embrace a new worldview built upon “wait for the LORD”. But what’s so difficult in this is that we gather around others to help us with this worldview. Look at verse 6. You’ve got a cheerleading squad here. We’ll help you build your idol and we’ll make sure it stands in this moment. And we can build entire communities on this. Never-ending cycles.

What’s happening here is that this community is hi-jacking God-intended community. It’s community built around a lie. It’s a together community. It’s probably tight knit. They’ve got each others back. They are in this together. And it feels good because we were created for community. But not as an end in itself. We were created for community built on truth to reflect the glory of God.

But you know why we share some of the things we do on Facebook and why we can even be tempted to lob grenades at people who are different from us…and then see the likes and the hearts and the shares and the retweets pile up…and the comments and responses gain traction. You know why we like that? Because we’re forming community.

And this must be quote Ray Ortlund week—and this one is even from a different book—but I appreciate what he says here:

“A cause, even a negative cause, provides a group to belong to. It is one way we nurse our grudges, and it feels good. But whenever we gather around grievance rather than Jesus, that is counterfeit community, black-market relationships, and that negativity is on a collision course with reality. It cannot succeed long-term.”

Gathering around grievance rather than Jesus. Can’t you picture them doing that here in verse 6 in their “watch out for Cyrus” support club. And here is how we’re so jaded and polarized on this and viewing things through our political lenses. There will be some of you who hear this and say, “yeah, I can’t believe how bad those liberals are at doing what pastor is talking about.” Or you’ll say, “man, I see this so bad with conservative talk-radio”. Prop up that idol. Strengthen that community built on grievance.

Man, it’s not just politics. It can be community built around drug use. Those are some of the tightest communities you’ll ever find. It can be community built around sports. It can be communities built around watching old reruns of Matlock. We’ll build community wherever we can—and that’s not a bad thing—what’s the bad thing is that so often they’re built around idols. You can build community around things like theology and it still be built upon idolatry. Anything which I’ve built (that’s the key) to deal with our fear (see v5), to answer our big questions, to protect us, to give us meaning, all of that stuff.

But it’ll never work. You know why…because this piece of wood doesn’t have self-existence. It can’t stand on its own. It needs to be nailed to the ground. And sometimes the wind is stronger than those nails. Sometime it’s stronger than a whole community trying to hold a lie together. What do you do in that moment…?

You trust in the God who alone moves history. And the second thing we see…

2. Because God alone is present with existence

But you...

Here God turns to his people and says, “you’re going to be different. You’re going to respond differently. You don’t need to spend your life propping up idols because you have the real thing.”

Notice all the relational language in this section. Verse 8-16. It’d be one thing for God to be able to do something but he doesn’t really want to. Here we see that God is not only self-existent but he is also present with them. Both are important.

And idol isn’t going to be there for you. It can’t. Because it’s a mirage. But here we see God taking an active role in their defense…a very real defense against a very real enemy. He’s moving history…and He’s moving history FOR them.

You want to see this played out in real time. Read the book of Esther. God’s name isn’t even mentioned in that book and yet he is orchestrating everything. “It just so happened...” Mordecai just happened to be there. Esther just happened to be in a place of influence. Or you can read Daniel. This is what God is doing in real time.

I’m with you. Don’t be dismayed. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be afraid. I’ve got this for you. I will uphold you. Do you see the difference.

You’ve got a group of people over here having to uphold the idol. Gotta keep this thing from collapsing. You feel that way with your life. I’ve gotta keep this thing from collapsing. But listen to what God is saying here. “I WILL UPHOLD YOU”. You don’t need to work. You don’t need to labor. You don’t need to drive nails. I already did. I’m holding you up.

You know what you do in that instance? You know what your job is? Throw your weight upon him. That’s what you need to do in that moment. Trust him.

And in verse 11-13 we see God’s promise to them. I’m going to take out those people you are fearing. It’s not going to be with a microwave. It’s going to take some years. But he’s making all things new. He’s ultimately going to destroy evil and hurt and pain and death and sin and all those things which make us weep in sadness. Do you believe that.

Listen to verse 14. Why does he call them a worm? It means that they are small and insignificant and helpless creatures. Why say that? Because God wants them, and us, to know that the key player in all of this—the great sovereign—the one who makes this happen—the one upon whom this depends—is not weak insignificant people. It’s God who does everything. Redeemer. He’s the active role.

Bought back. Restorer. One who heals. One who makes everything new. He alone can do this. And that’s where we see our third point come into play.

3. God alone can transform and heal

Look at verse 15 and all that business about a threshing sledge. A new one. A good one. One that’s going to make it happen. What’s that all about? It’s basically a combine. But here is the picture. You’ve got a worm in charge of leveling mountains. That might take awhile.

But what God says here is that he’s going to transform them. He’s going to act. So it depends upon him. He’s promised that He is going to do it. Grounded in his promises. And this God who promises to act is the same God who has acted before and is the same God with all this power and it is this same God who is going to do what we need. He’s saying, “I’ve got the debt. I’ll pay the debt.”

This is what happens in the gospel. The greatest tyrant isn’t the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, etc. the greatest tyrant is sin, the flesh, and the devil. And this is precisely where the Lord deals the death blow. He redeems us from the curse of the law. That’s what got them in exile. That’s what causes all of this. It’s the curse of the law. He fulfills what His own law requires. He restores. He redeems. He heals. He transforms from the inside out.

But God’s power that we see here doesn’t cause us to be come passive goop. It actually immobilizes. Again read Daniel. Read Esther. They weren’t passive and just sitting there doing nothing. To wait upon the Lord means to actively and passionately and courageously do the things that you know He is calling you to do and to do them with this worldview. Be a worm that’s a threshing sledge.

17-20. Something from nothing. Nothing to give. God transforms this.

Three things are happening here. Innovation---water is coming where it was previously nothing—barren. Multiplication is happening. There are springs where you already had water. And transformation. Deserts become an oasis. Not to mention that all these trees aren’t normally found together.

This is what God does. He makes something out of nothing. This isn’t meant to be just a little pick me up. God is after far more than paying your light bill. Don’t hear me wrong. He can and does meet those immediate needs. He can and does heal the broken-hearted. Absolutely.

But the bigger picture here is of death being brought to life. This is what he does in the gospel. Separated from God. Given new life.

Application:

Are you propping your idols up? Are you resting in idols? you hoping that these can save you, that these can give you shalom, that these can give you what you desire?

I found this prayer from Jerry Bridges this week and it’s really rattling in my soul:

Lord, I am willing To receive what You give. To lack what You withhold. To relinquish what You take, To suffer what You inflict, To be what you require.

Why? Because we trust the Lord and His goodness. He knows best. No need to try to fill in what we lack with idols. But trust the Lord’s hand.

Do you have a relationship with Jesus?