2022-4-10, Isaiah: Redemption Foretold, Our Redeemer Has Come, So Prepare The Way for the Lord, Is. 7:5-16, 40:3-5
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Introduction & Review
Introduction & Review
I love Christmas. By the way, Christmas is only 259 days away. I mention Christmas because Easter is next week. No, it’s not just my love for candy canes that makes me say this. It’s that Christmas and Easter are best understood together.
Christmas celebrates that the Redeemer has come. Christmas is about the fulfillment of the promise that God would send a Redeemer.
This is important to appreciate carols like Joy to the World! (87), “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.”
Hark the Herald Angels Sing! (88) “Christ, by highest heav’n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord: Late in time, behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail th’incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.”
O Come All Ye Faithful (89) “Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning, Jesus to Thee be all glory given; Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing...”
These hymns all relate to the anticipation of the Savior and then the feelings of jubilation at His arrival.
Easter, on the other hand, celebrates the work that the Redeemer accomplished during His first advent (coming). This work centers on the cross, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Both of these manifest the theme of redemption.
Isaiah is a book of redemption foretold.
So it figures that Isaiah, which is a prophetic book about redemption, would point to Christmas and Easter. Amazingly, it does this 700 years before they happened.
We’re going to continue to look at what Isaiah says about the coming of the Redeemer, before it even happened.
Review
Review
Isaiah revealed that: We all have sin that separates us from Christ. Sin contorts our hearts morally. It causes God to reject our worship. So, We all need redemption.
This is the bad news. However, Isaiah also spelled out the good news.
God desires for us to redeemed.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
God wants the stain of our sin removed. He wants our sin-debt cancelled for salvation. He wants our hearts to be straightened and for us willfully to reject sin and choose righteousness.
So, this is great. However, it raises the next question: How are we redeemed of our sin? Can we redeem ourselves? No! We simply do not have what it takes to overcome the offenses we’ve made toward the Lord. That would be a check with insufficient funds. We are spiritually bankrupt.
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
Therefore, the only possible source for redemption from sin is God Himself.
Isaiah and the other prophets show us that redemption comes to us by means of a person who will come: The Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. The one who takes away the sin of the World (John 1:29).
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The means to redemption belongs to the Lord.
In Isaiah, God promises to send the Redeemer. The great news for you and me is that we live in a time which is after the event that Isaiah has spoken about, our Redeemer has already come.
Book
Book
Let’s look at Isaiah 7:14,
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
When Isaiah spoke these words, he was not only referring to the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary. These words has specific meaning in the immediate context of the 8th century.
Context
Context
When Ahaz became king of Judah (southern kingdom), the king of the northern kingdom, king Pekah (Pay-kah) and the king of Syria (Rezin) wanted him to help them to stop the Great Assyrian Army coming from the east.
Ahaz refused to help them, so the northern kingdom of Israel and Syria turned their forces against him. (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:6).
This caused a lot of fear for Ahaz.
But, God told Isaiah to give assurance to Ahaz.
5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord God:
“ ‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’ ”
Isaiah foretells that the northern kingdom and Syria will not succeed in overtaking Judah. Further, Assyria will over take them, but not Judah. Nevertheless, Isaiah’s message to Ahaz is that his strength as a king will come through faith in the God of Jacob.
Certainly there is a lesson in this for all of us who face life’s troubles. “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”
Then, Isaiah told Ahaz to ask God for a sign that this deliverance would take place soon.
What kind of sign would you ask for?
King Ahaz refused to ask for a sign. He did not want to put the Lord to the test. This was actually because he was reticent to have faith in the Lord.
So God gave him a sign. Isaiah said,
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
This is an incredible verse. It talks about a sign with three components.
1. A virgin: The word “virgin” can mean either “a young woman” or “a young woman who has never been with a man.”
2. A son
3. A name: the child shall bear the title Immanuel, which expresses the most fundamental truth about God relationship with His people, “God with us.”
The Bible recognizes that it has two fulfillments. Immediate and ultimate.
First, pertaining to the immediate situation,
3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
The virgin: referred to Isaiah’s wife (a young woman)
A son: Isaiah’s son
A name: the meaning of the title Immanuel was applied in this case to Maher-shalal-hash-baz. His specific name meant “the spoil speeds, the prey hastens” “Assyria, Pekah and Rezin are ready for defeat, come and get them!”
The verses following 7:14 refer to the immediate fulfilment of Isaiah’s...
15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
This means that by the time Isaiah and his wife have a child and that son is old enough to know right and wrong, then Judah will be free of the threat of the northern kingdom and Syria.
However, a ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy far exceeds the first in magnitude and impact.
Sometime in the future, there would be
1. a virgin (in the complete sense of the term)
2. a son
3. A name: Immanuel, Jesus
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
I the greater sense of this prophesy, According to Isaiah, one day God would send the Redeemer who would bring redemption to all of Israel, and also to all the peoples of the earth.
The New Testament authors, those holy men inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down the words of God, agreed Isaiah referenced Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Look- Application, what difference does this make?
Look- Application, what difference does this make?
Again, the great news is that Jesus has already come and redemption is readily available.
Aren’t you glad that you didn’t live in 200 BC when you would have still been waiting for the Redeemer to come? We live in a special time when the facts of Jesus our Redeemer are known. We enjoy seeing how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the OT regarding His coming.
This is good because we have an urgent need for redemption.
When I was in college I made the drive from Shawnee, OK to Aurora, CO many times. Going through western Kansas you had to plan your fuel. You must stop in Hays or Goodland, Kansas to get a full tank of gas which will get you across the eastern plains of CO. Sometimes I didn’t fill up and I though I would in Burrlington CO. No, they roll up the sidewalks at 8 pm. A few time I was sweating it whether I would make it to Limon as I drove on fumes. It’s unnerving to have an urgent need, and not have access to the solution.
The good news is that in the most important matter, redemption, this is not the case. Jesus the Redeemer has already come!
He has already brought redemption.
We need no longer wait to receive what we need! Our Redeemer has come and Redemption is available to us now.
Look #2
Look #2
So, what must happen? What should we change?
Isaiah signals the right response to the Redeemer.
3 A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
This passage is a command to the people of Israel, the nations, and even creation to make ready the way for the Redeemer.
1. Creation is to make the path easy and direct for the King to come to His city
2. The People of Israel are to make it easy for the King to come into the Jerusalem to take the throne
3. People are to make it easy for Jesus to come into their hearts. They are to repent of sin and believe.
In the NT, John Baptist was identified as the voice calling out in the wilderness “prepare the way of the Lord!
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”
The people in Jerusalem reflected posture by celebrating Jesus as He came into Jerusalem to take the throne.
8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Likewise, We need to prepare the way of the Redeemer into our hearts.
Today we can straighten the path, open the gates, lay down cloaks and garments on the road into our hearts. We do this by ABC.
We do this every day as believers, who are already saved by faith, when we begin each day in Luke 9:23 fashion
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
“Lord, cleanse sin of my sin yet again. Make me into a vessel according to your pleasure.”
Took
Took
Take the time
Tune out the Noise
Talk about the Lord in our homes- Celebrate Christmas again today- Joy to the World!, Hark the Herald Angels Sing!, and O Come All Ye Faithful.