ISAIAH 40-48

John LaShell | September 15th, 2024
Introduction:Isaiah 40 begins with a word of comfort to God’s people. It was a suitable word, because in chapters 36 and 37 Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian armies. Jerusalem would have been crushed if God had not sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief, but Israel’s troubles were not over. For the next hundred years, they would continue to be squished between Egypt in the south and Assyria coming down from the north. After that, the Babylonians would destroy Jerusalem and take the Jewish people into captivity. The news was not good. It was going to look as if God had deserted His people.
We often tell children that each one of them is unique. There is no one like them in all the world. “No one has your unique nose and eyes. No one has your unique smile. No in the world is exactly like you. You are special.”God is not unique in that way. We can’t put Him in a line with other claims to our affection and loyalty and see if He is better. There is no one and no thing that can even be compared to our God. He alone is our hope. He alone is our comfort. He alone is our Savior. That is the theme of Isaiah 40-48.Isaiah 40:18To whom then will you liken God?Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
Isaiah 40:25“To whom then will you liken MeThat I would be his equal?" says the Holy One.”
My message this morning is simple. Don’t trust the rivals of God in the world. Instead, trust the revelation of God in Christ because there is no one like Him.
Don’t Trust the Rivals of God in the World
A. Don’t trust the false security of the worldIn Isaiah’s day, the false security of the world came in the form of other nations and powerful rulers. So Isaiah shows us their weakness.
The mightiest nations in history are like one drop spilling from a full bucket of water. In Isaiah’s day—Egypt, one drop. Assyria, one drop. Babylon, one drop. In our day—America, one drop. Russia, one drop. China, one drop. That’s all. Don’t fear our enemies. Don’t trust our nation’s military or economic power. All are single drops from a full bucket.
Isaiah 40:21-25Do you not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,Who stretches out the heavens like a curtainAnd spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.Scarcely have they been planted,Scarcely have they been sown,Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,But He merely blows on them, and they wither,And the storm carries them away like stubble.“To whom then will you liken MeThat I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
In the book of Isaiah, God casts down Assyria and Babylon, but He promises to raise up Cyrus the Persian to restore the Jews to their homeland.Isaiah 44:28“It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!And he will perform all My desire.’And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
God named Cyrus 150 years before he came to power. God raises up leaders, and He casts them down. He blows on them and they wither like grass in a drought. He scatters them like bits of straw in a hurricane. Don’t give your heart to the promise of political power. Politicians cannot give security, either for your personal finances or for our national security. Don’t give your heart to them. Don’t trust in them.
When your sense of security depends on the strength of a nation or on a strong leader, you are apt to fall into one of two errors (or both at once).False confidenceAt the end of Isaiah 37, the angel of the Lord delivered Jerusalem by killing 185,000 soldiers in one night. In chapter 38, Hezekiah was miraculously healed of a mortal sickness. By chapter 39, Hezekiah was feeling pretty good about things. When Babylonian messengers came for a visit, he proudly showed them all of his treasures. He was trying to impress them (and himself) with his worth as an ally against Assyria. His confidence was misplaced, and underneath that false confidence was an element of doubt in the Lord, so he fell at the same time into another error.
Fearful compromiseHezekiah compromised. Out of fear, he allied himself with a pagan nation. That is always a danger when people panic. They are willing to become allies of the ungodly to secure godly ends.
This is so practical. We are living in a divided nation. I have friends who say, “A real Christian can’t vote for Trump.” I have friends who say, “A real Christian can’t vote for Harris.” Passions are inflamed. Families and churches are divided. Neither Trump nor Harris will determine the fate of our nation. Don’t put all your hopes and faith in any candidate. Cast your vote with much wisdom and care, but remember this. When God is finished with Trump, He will blow him away like a bit of straw in a tornado. When God is finished with Harris, He will blow her away like a bit of straw in a tornado. Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, and he is a real threat to Europe and to the peace of the world. When God is finished with him, He will blow Putin away like a bit of straw in a tornado. These leaders are mere flesh.Psalm 20:7Some boast in chariots and some in horses,But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.
What makes you feel secure? Perhaps you are not trusting in the might of America or in the promises of a political candidate. What in this world makes you feel secure? What makes you feel insecure? What do you need to feel happy and safe? Maybe you have it and you feel pretty good. Maybe you don’t have it and you worry, or you worry that you will lose it. Does money in the bank or a good income make you feel secure—or would it if you had it? Do you depend on another person for your security and your happiness? In the Peanuts Cartoons, Linus had his blanket for security. Where does your security lie? If you trust it, it will become a rival to God in your heart.
A. Don’t trust in the false security of the world.B. Don’t trust the false spirituality of the worldFalse spirituality was a real danger in Isaiah’s day. It is a real danger in our day. There are two basic ways people are trapped in false spirituality.
By following other godsBy misrepresenting the true God
The point of this passage is twofold. First, the idols of the pagans are helpless gods. Second, the true and living God cannot be represented by any image. Any image of God misrepresents Him and defiles His glory.
Israel was constantly tempted to worship the gods of the other nations. King Ahaz, the loser we met in Isaiah 7, burned his son to death as a sacrifice to pagan gods. He also shoved the Lord’s altar in the temple aside, and put an altar to a pagan god in its place.
Isaiah’s message is essential for our day—for you and your children. When the world says all religions are alike, all ways to God are equally valid, we must stand up and say, NO! Allah, the god of the Muslims, is a false god. The great gods of India, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are false gods. Krishna is a false incarnation of the false god, Vishnu. No other god can save. No other god has predicted the future hundreds of years in advance. No other god is a Rock on whom you can plant your feet. There is no one like Him.
The false spirituality of Isaiah’s day also included misrepresentations of the true God. God does not allow us to represent Him by any image. Deuteronomy 4 explains the Second Commandment about making images of God.
So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female (vv.15-16).
[Now the Lord speaks.]"Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,And all the remnant of the house of Israel,You who have been borne by Me from birthAnd have been carried from the womb;Even to your old age I will be the same,And even to your graying years I will bear you!I have done it, and I will carry you;And I will bear you and I will deliver you.To whom would you liken MeAnd make Me equal and compare Me,That we would be alike?”
Bel and Nebo are helpless gods represented by helpless images. God will not allow Himself to be represented by a helpless picture or statue that has to be carried from place to place because He is the one who carries us.
I’m sure this raises many questions for some of you. I’ve written quite a bit on the subject of idolatry and specifically images of Jesus. I don’t have time to deal with all your questions this morning. I will say this. The New Testament never reverses the Old Testament prohibition on images. In Romans 1 Paul traces the corruption of worship to fools who, “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (v. 23). Paul doesn’t say, “Put some clothes on your naked, marble image of Apollo and call it Jesus.”
People will say of their favorite picture of Christ, “Well, of course I know He didn’t actually look like that, and besides I don’t worship it.” Educated pagans in the first century would say the same thing. Their idols only represented the gods they worshiped. The images were just aids to worship. I could say much more, but I want to move on to the fundamental problem with false spirituality.
Christian people can become dissatisfied with true spiritual worship as it is described in the New Testament. New Testament worship is always focused on the word of God, never on externals. We preach and sing the word of God. Our prayers are based on the truths of God’s word. But people long for more. They want something visible. They want something touchable. God has given us two visible, touchable representations of the gospel: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “Not enough! Not enough!” They say. “So let’s add candles and incense and icons and processions and prayer mazes. Let us learn meditation from the Eastern masters. These practices help us. We like them. Don’t just give us the word of God. Give us more.”People know what they like. They know what makes them feel good. They know what makes them feel closer to God. But as soon as we start adding religious practices to the word of God, we reduce the importance of the bare word of God, and the religion of the Bible gradually becomes something else.
Don’t trust the rivals of God in the world, whether they offer false security or false spirituality. Instead, trust the revelation of God in Christ because there is no one like Him.
Do Trust the Revelation of God in ChristWho is the true God who has revealed Himself? His name is Yahweh. His name is Jesus. Yahweh is the Old Testament name for God. Jesus means Yahweh saves or Yahweh is salvation. When you look at Isaiah 40-48 through the lens of the New Testament, everything Isaiah says about Yahweh is true of Jesus. I must be very brief here because each of these points deserves a message. Isaiah himself gives us the signal to see Jesus in his prophecies.
B. Jesus is the glory of God in human flesh“Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed.” What was the supreme revelation of the glory of God?And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Isaiah tells us that all flesh is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades. Jesus took on our frail humanity to reveal the glory of God by His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension to glory. The apostles did not see the glory of God in the way Jesus looked. He looked like an ordinary man. No image can show the glory of God in the face of Christ. The apostles saw the glory of Christ in what He did and what He said. His words and deeds revealed the glory of God. No other pretend god has done what Jesus said and did. There is no one like Him.
The Bible calls Jesus the Word of God. He is the eternal self-expression of God the Father. Beyond that, Jesus saidHeaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Matthew 24:35). Notice that Jesus doesn’t say God’s word will not pass away. That is the way the Old Testament prophets spoke. Jesus simply says, “My words” because He is God.
Colossians 1:16-17 says of ChristFor by Him [Christ] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
The stars are not missing because Christ the Creator holds all things together.
Jesus said,Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).
No one else can give rest to your soul. There is no one like Jesus.
G. Jesus is the only SaviorIsaiah 43:11I, even I, am the LORD,And there is no savior besides Me.
Conclusion: Don’t trust the rivals of God in the world. Instead, trust the revelation of God in Christ.God’s rivals offer a false sense of security and a false approach to spirituality. Jesus Christ is all you need for security. The word of God preached, read, and stored in your heart gives all you need for true spirituality.
If you are here without Christ, repent of your neglect of Him, and come to Christ to be saved. There is no one like Him, no Savior, no Shepherd, no rest anywhere else, but in Him.
If you are a Christian, perhaps you need to repent of looking beyond Christ and His word. Bring your insecurities to Him—your political insecurities, your financial insecurities, your interpersonal insecurities, your spiritual insecurities. Bring your desperate need for intimacy with God to Him. If you draw near to Him in the way He has prescribed, He will draw near to you.