Joy for the Nations

Good morning, church. It's good to see you all this morning. Would you turn with me to Isaiah

Isaiah 41 · chapter mention

chapter 41 and verse 21. That is page 563 in the Pew Bible. Isaiah chapter 41, verse 21, page 563.

Isaiah 41:21

Now, what we're talking about this morning is ultimately joy. Why is it so hard to find?

Where do we get it? Joy. Now, if you're new to the Bible, the chapters are actually the big numbers,

and the small numbers are the verses. But it's good to know, as you think about those numbers,

that the chapter and verse numbers were actually added later to the text over time to help readers

navigate the passages together. But those chapter divisions don't always divide the flow of thought

perfectly. So what we'll see in Isaiah is that there are some sections or some ideas that begin

in the middle of one chapter and that end in the middle of another. So our chapter divisions aren't

always perfectly dividing our sermon units. And that's what's true of our text today. Isaiah is

turning his sights to a new topic, and his treatment of that topic doesn't end until chapter 42, verse 17.

So we're going to look today at the end of chapter 41 and how that idea gets developed and brought to

its conclusion in chapter 42. And then what we'll find is in the middle of 42, another idea picks up,

and that's where we'll start next week. But today, here in 41 and the first half of 42,

the topic is joy. How can the nations find lasting joy? That's where Isaiah is headed in this section.

And you can see that for yourself if you have the Bible open and you jump ahead and look at chapter 42,

verse 11. 42, 11, which is the sort of climax where Isaiah is headed in this section. 42, 11 says,

let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants

of Selah sing for joy. Let them shout from the tops of the mountains. So Isaiah is looking all around,

all around at the nations around him, from the deserts to the mountains, from Kedar, that's an area in the

northern Arabian desert to Selah, that's a city in the far south. He sees all around all these nations.

What does he see? He sees them erupting with joy, joy for the nations. Isn't that what we want for

not just ourselves, but our friends and our kids and our neighbors? Real joy.

Well, Isaiah here is going to give us an analysis of joy. First, why it's so hard to find, and then

second, how we can actually get it. So first, let's take a look at why it's so hard to find.

This is where Isaiah starts in chapter 41, verse 21. Now, just a little context for our passage.

Remember, up to this point in this section of Isaiah, up to this point in chapter 40 and 41,

who has Isaiah been talking to? He's really been talking directly to the people of Israel.

But now he's going to turn out to the broader nations. To the people of Israel, God has been

speaking to their felt problem that they're weary in exile, that they're feeling guilty because of

their sin. But to the nations, it's not so much that they're feeling weary or guilty,

empty, but empty. Empty. Bring out your gods, the Lord is going to say. And let me show you

why you feel so empty. Let's pick up in verse 21. All right, verse 21. Let me read this for us.

Set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proofs, says the king of Jacob. Let them, that is the

nations. Bring them, that is their gods, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things,

what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome. Or declare to us the things

to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Do good or do harm,

that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing.

An abomination, that is, an offense against creation, is he who chooses you.

I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon

my name. He shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. Who declared it from the

beginning that we might know, and beforehand that we might say, he is right. There was none who declared

it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. I was the first to say to Zion, behold, here they are.

And I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. But when I look, that is when I look among the gods,

there's no one. Among these, there's no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all

a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind.

Okay, so if you're not feeling well, and you go to your doctor, what you want is a diagnosis, right?

Why am I feeling this way? What you don't want is a doctor who says, you know, you're actually fine.

Everything's okay. When everything's not okay, right? You need to hear the bad news so that you

can get to the root and hopefully find a remedy. And what's happening here in verses 21 through 29

is a diagnosis of what's ailing the nations. And in fact, it plays out like a court case.

The Lord, the God of Israel, is calling together the nations and saying, let's have some proof.

Prove to me that your gods are really gods. If they are really gods, then surely they could speak,

and surely they could act, right? Verses 22 and 23, God says, they should be able to tell us

something. And at the end of verse 23, they should be able to do something, even if it's good or bad,

good or harm. So can they speak? Can they act? And more particularly, not just can they speak,

but a little more closely, if we look at the text, God is sort of saying, can they look back at all

that's come before and make sense of it? Can they give meaning to it? Verse 22, tell us the former

things what they are, that we may consider them and we may know their outcome. Can these so-called gods

give any sense of meaning to history? And not just that, can they look ahead and tell us where history

is headed? Verse 22 picks up, declare to us, not just former things, but the things to come.

Tell us what's to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods.

And of course, the idols of the nations come up short. They can't speak and they can't act.

They can't give any kind of meaning to the past or tell us where the future is headed.

But with the Lord, the God of Israel, things are completely different. Can this God act?

Yes, verse 25 tells us. Verse 25 says, he's the one who will stir up one from the north. Now,

in the historical context, the reference there is to Cyrus, the coming Persian ruler who will defeat

the nation of Babylon and liberate the exiled Jews in the sixth century. Okay, this God can act.

Can he speak? Yes. Verses 26 and 27 say that this God foretold it all before it would happen.

The Lord predicted Cyrus's conquest right here in the book of Isaiah, hundreds of years before it

happened. Part of the power of this section of Isaiah is that God is telling his people over a

hundred years before the fact, not just that they're going to go into exile, not just that they're going

to be brought back, which practically never happened in the ancient world, but he also tells them how he's

going to do it. Now, many skeptical scholars will treat these predictions in Isaiah, they'll sort of

look at these predictions in Isaiah and say, hey, look, this is just proof that these chapters were

written after the fact. In other words, they say, you know, they'll say that some later anonymous

writer in the sixth century must have seen these things happen, Cyrus and the downfall of Babylon,

and then he must have written them down and then added them to Isaiah's old book.

And of course, if that's true, if that's where these texts really come from, then these parts of

Isaiah don't really have much power, do they? In that case, the Lord isn't so much different than the

so-called gods of the nations. But the question is, should we jump to such a quick conclusion?

Should we rule out the possibility of predictive prophecy altogether? Is it simply impossible

that God could have foretold these things? How do we figure that out? How do we decide?

Well, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that we don't have any evidence of some anonymous

sixth century pseudo-Isaiah who saw these things and wrote them down and attached them to the book

of Isaiah. We don't really have any evidence of that. But we do have evidence that the God of the

Bible can predict the future and make good on those predictions. Well, where do we have that evidence?

Well, you know, in this very book of Isaiah, we will see God speak not just about Cyrus,

who will liberate the people from their political exile, but Isaiah is also going to talk about a

servant who will come after that, who will atone for the people. And other Old Testament prophets

will speak of a king who is supposed to come from David's line and who will come from Bethlehem

and who will first appear in northern Galilee and who will appeal not just to the Jews but to the

Gentiles as well. And this one to come will be pierced and wounded for his people's transgressions.

You see, hundreds of years before the fact, the God of the Bible predicted

that Jesus, the Christ, would come. And God has made good on all of those promises.

So if we follow the evidence, where does it lead? Which view has the best evidence? That there was

an anonymous writer in the sixth century who could have wrote things down and then attach them to

Isaiah? Do we have any evidence for that? Not really. But we have a lot of evidence that the God

who created all things and who is the Lord of history can make promises and fulfill them.

So for following the evidence, we find that maybe it's not so hard to believe that God,

through Isaiah, can predict the coming of one like Cyrus who will liberate his people.

But of course, the problem with the nations is that they don't know this God.

They serve gods that aren't really gods at all. In fact, at best, they're just personifications

of the created world. That's why verse 24 says to these so-called gods, look at verse 24, he says,

Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing. An abomination, that is an offense

against a created order, is he who chooses you. You know, to take, to take some aspect of the created

world and hold it up as a God, right, to take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing, which is

what idolatry is. Isaiah says that's an offense against creation itself. Created things aren't

meant to be worshipped that way. And what is the outcome when we do? We'll look at verse 29.

Behold, they're all a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind.

Emptiness is the outcome. Now, it's easy, of course, to look at the ancient world and think

how foolish they were to worship idols, right? How empty all of that was.

But you know, the human heart always worships something. It's impossible for our hearts to not

have some ultimate concern, some driving deep love, something that we elevate to ultimate in our lives.

We always worship something. And that something will either be a created thing or the creator.

There's really no third way.

So whereas today our gods, you know, we don't call our gods by names like Marduk,

like they did in the ancient world, or Zeus in ancient Greece, or Odin, you know, like the old

Norse gods. Even though we don't give our gods those names, right, we're still worshipers.

And our so-called gods leave us just as empty and just as without joy.

What are some of the gods we might worship today? Well, think of the god of success.

It's easy to worship success, isn't it? After all, who doesn't want to be successful? To be liked,

to be known, to be influential. And so, in chasing success, in worshiping it, we study hard, we work

hard, we make the right social connections, we climb the ladder, we pay our dues, we take our risks.

And you know what the outcome is? Some people actually make it. But then what?

It's emptiness.

The irony is, if you worship success, you never feel like you've truly made it.

It's always emptiness in the end.

Now, of course, success, right? That's a pretty, that's a pretty base god, isn't it? Everybody knows

you shouldn't worship success, duh. After all, we think it's relationships, right? It's love that

really matters. We don't want to build our lives around success. We want to build our lives around

relationships, around finding a partner, or starting a family. So maybe if I just get the right spouse,

or the right kids, or I find the right community, then I'll make it, then I'll be okay.

But again, the irony is, if you worship family, if you worship relationships,

it'll tear your relationships apart and leave you empty.

Besides, no spouse, right? No family, no community could ever meet those expectations.

If you're looking to another person to make you ultimately happy and ultimately okay,

that person should run the other way, right?

And look around.

You know, most of us who move from partner to partner to partner or community to community to

community searching for it, we're not happy. We're empty.

We think we're so much more evolved than the ancient world.

But are we?

You know, in the ancient world, they had gods of power and family and love.

They had names for them, but that's what they were.

We worship the same things. We just use different names.

But though the names have changed, the result is the same.

We're empty too.

Why is joy so hard to find?

Because taking a good thing and making it into an ultimate thing leads to emptiness.

But what does the Lord do about it?

Does the Lord, the God of Israel, the one true God, just leave us, the nations, in our emptiness?

He could, you know.

He could say, that's what you've chosen.

You can have what you choose.

And He could continue to let us worship created things.

And He could let us just continue to reap the empty wind.

What does God do about it?

What hope is there for the nations?

What hope is there for us, for you and me?

And that brings us to the next part of our text.

You know, you notice in verse 42, or excuse me, in verse 24,

in verse 24 of chapter 41, God says,

Behold, the false gods are nothing.

And then in verse 29, He says,

Behold, they're all a delusion.

But then chapter 42 opens,

and God says, Behold, again.

Behold.

But this time,

Behold my servant.

Behold the remedy

to your emptiness.

Behold the one who brings real joy.

Let's pick up and read chapter 42,

verses 1 through 9.

Behold my servant,

whom I uphold,

my chosen,

in whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth

justice

to the nations.

He will not cry aloud,

or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street.

A bruised reed

he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick

he will not quench.

He will faithfully

bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint

or be discouraged

till he has established

justice in the earth,

and the coastlands

wait for his law.

Thus says God,

the Lord,

who created the heavens

and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth

and what comes from it,

who gives breath

to the people on it,

and spirit to those

who walk in it.

I am the Lord.

I have called you,

and you there

refers to the servant

in verse 1.

I have called you

in righteousness.

I will take you

by the hand

and keep you,

and I will give you,

this servant,

I will give you

as a covenant

for the people,

a light for the nations,

to open the eyes

that are blind,

to bring out

the prisoners

from the dungeon,

from the prison,

those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord.

That is my name.

My glory I give

to no other,

nor my praise

to carved idols.

Behold,

the former things

have come to pass,

and new things now

I declare

before they spring forth.

I tell you of them.

So the bridge,

the bridge between

the emptiness

at the end

of chapter 41

and the joy

that we looked at

at the very beginning,

the joy for all nations

in chapter 41,

verse 11,

the bridge

is right here

in verses 1 through 9.

This is how God does it.

This is how God

can take you and me

from emptiness to joy.

But notice,

God has to do it.

You know,

it's easy to think,

well,

if my problem

is idolatry,

if I'm worshiping

the wrong things,

then I'll just start

worshiping the right things.

And on the surface,

that sounds obviously right,

right?

Stop doing this,

start doing that,

and you're good.

But the problem is,

that way of thinking

underestimates

how deep

our problem

really is.

We can't

actually

save ourselves

that way.

Our hearts

are like

little

idol factories,

and they just keep

churning them out.

And if we turn

from one,

we'll fall

into another.

And if we try

to worship

the true God,

we constantly

fall away.

You see,

what we need

is more than just

a little bit of knowledge

and a little push

in the right direction.

What we actually

need

is to be

liberated.

In verse 7,

God says,

I didn't come to give you

a little knowledge

and a little push

in the right direction.

I've come

to set you free,

to open the eyes

that are blind,

and to bring out

the prisoners

from the dungeon.

You can't make

this right,

God says.

I have to make it right.

You can't simply

wake up one day

and say,

you know,

I'm going to promise

to follow God today.

I'm going to make

a covenant

to stop worshiping

the wrong things

and start worshiping

the right things.

God says,

how long will you

keep that promise

of yours,

that covenant

of yours?

No,

God says,

I have to be

the one

who makes

the covenant.

I've got to make

the promise.

I have to seal

the relationship.

There's no other way.

You can't make

things right.

I have to make

things right.

And how does

God do it?

Look at verse 1.

Behold my servant

whom I uphold,

my chosen

in whom my soul

delights.

I have put my

spirit upon him.

He will bring

forth justice

to the nations.

Justice.

To a world

where everything

has gotten

mixed up

and gone wrong,

this servant

of the Lord

will come,

Isaiah says,

and put things

right.

He will bring

forth justice.

Justice,

a writing

of what's wrong.

You can't make

it right,

but he can.

Three times

the word justice

is used here

in these first

four verses.

And the word justice

in Isaiah

means not just

God's declaration

of what's right

and true,

but God's

restoration

of what's right

and true.

Justice in the

Bible is sort of

like the opposite

of chaos.

You know,

you remember

chapter 41,

it ends,

speaking of empty

wind, right?

That's where chapter

41 ends,

empty wind.

And the Hebrew

word there,

one of the Hebrew

word there is

actually tohu,

which is a word

that sort of

means what it

sounds,

tohu.

It's the same

word used in

the opening

verses of Genesis

to describe

the unformed

creation,

formless and void.

It's just tohu.

It's as if Isaiah

is saying,

look,

idolatry returns

us to the

nothingness and

emptiness of God's

creation.

But God's

justice

is the right

ordering of

life.

When the

Creator speaks

in Genesis 1,

what happens?

The formless

takes form

and the

emptiness

teems with

life.

This is

justice

in the Bible,

the right

ordering

of life.

If

idolatry

sinks us

into chaos,

the servant

comes and

at last

brings justice,

the healing,

restoring order

of the

Creator.

And He's

doing this

not just to

Israel,

but to the

nations in

verse 1.

He's going to

bring forth

justice to

the nations,

to all of

us.

And is He

only going to

do it

halfway?

No,

He's going to

carry it

through faithfully,

verse 3 says.

And He's not

going to stop

until it's

established,

verse 4 says.

Through the

agency of

this servant,

the Lord is

going to put

right what we

could never

put right.

Into the

sea of our

idolatry and

emptiness,

the servant

comes to

restore and

repair and

ultimately to

put us right

with God.

That's what the

Lord says of

this servant in

verse 6.

If you look

again at verse 6,

He says,

I will take

you by the

hand and

keep you,

and I will

give you as

a covenant

for the

people.

In other

words, in

and through

this servant,

the nations,

the nations

who didn't

know God,

who were far

from God,

without God,

and without

hope in the

world, trapped

in the emptiness

of idolatry,

in and through

this servant,

those nations

would be sealed

in a right

relationship with

the one true

God, held

by Him in a

covenant, in a

binding promise.

And when you

look at the

Old Testament,

the heart, the

very heartbeat

of the covenant,

of God's covenant

in the Old Testament

can be summed up

in this phrase,

a phrase that God

says to His people

over and over

again, what is

the covenant?

It's this.

God says, I will

be your God,

and you will be

my people.

That binding,

intimate,

sealed relationship

with God.

In and through

this servant,

the nations who

are far off

will be brought

near.

Though they had

spent themselves

in the service

of false gods

and reaped the

wind of emptiness,

God says,

through my servant,

I'll be your God,

and you'll be

my people.

That's the justice

He will bring.

That's the covenant

He will make,

and that will bring

joy.

But who is

this servant?

Who's the one

who can bring us

from emptiness

to joy

through the justice

that He brings?

Who's the one

who can liberate us

from the prison

of false gods

and seal us

in a covenant

with the one true God?

Well,

Isaiah doesn't

tell us here.

He just says

He's coming.

One day,

He'll come.

And when He comes,

He's going to be

really different

than what you

might have expected.

When He comes,

He's not going to be

brash and loud

and self-promoting

like the rulers

of this world.

Look at verse 2.

He will not cry aloud

or lift up His voice

in the street,

lift up His voice

or make it heard

in the street,

right?

He's not going to

parade around

making a big show

brash and loud

and self-promoting.

Rather,

He will be gentle

and He will be good.

A bruised reed

He will not break

and a faintly burning wick

He will not quench.

And you know,

hundreds of years later,

after Isaiah wrote

these words,

when Jesus Christ

arrived in Galilee,

preaching

and healing

and announcing

God's kingdom,

it all came true.

Here was the one

who had the power

to cast out demons,

but the gentleness

to meet the most

troubled

and burdened

sinner,

the most afflicted

and weary soul

and take them

into His hands

and give them peace.

How true

Isaiah's words

really were

when we look at Jesus,

a bruised reed

He will not break

and a faintly burning wick

He will not quench.

Friend,

how empty

do you feel this morning?

Do you feel bruised

and weak?

You know what a reed is,

right?

A reed is like

a long piece of grass

down by the water,

you know,

these sort of long,

slender things

that grow.

And they're really tender,

right?

And they're really easily

snapped and broken

and bruised.

Is that you today?

Or do you feel like,

do you feel like

your light

is about to go out,

right?

That's a faintly burning wick,

right?

You know,

if you have a candle

in your house

and it's burning

and then you blow it out,

right?

And then there's

a little ember right there

just sort of faintly,

faintly burning

and smoking,

smoldering,

just barely glowing.

Is that you today?

Do you feel like

your light

is about to go out?

Friends,

then listen

to the message of Isaiah.

listen to the words

of God for you.

That Jesus Christ,

the servant of the Lord,

has come

for you.

You might feel

useless

like a battered

and bruised reed,

but you're not useless

to Him.

And you might feel

like you've gone too far,

you've strayed too far,

like your wick

is about to go out,

but you're not

too far gone for Him.

None are too weak

or too far gone

for the Lord Jesus.

Though you

might grow faint

or be discouraged,

as Isaiah says

in verse 4,

He will not grow faint

or be discouraged

till He has established

justice in the earth.

Read the stories

of the Gospels,

friends.

Jesus faced

every trial.

He actually was

bruised and broken.

He was quenched.

He descended

into the godless chaos

of the crucifixion

when everyone around Him

was worshiping

a false God

and put the one true God

in their midst

to death.

He descended

into that godless chaos.

Why?

To bring justice

to the nations.

So that you can be

put right.

So that God's justice

might be established

for you

so that your sins

can be put off

and so that His righteousness

can be put on.

He went down

into sorrow

so that you can know joy.

Real joy.

The joy of knowing God.

And you know, friends,

if this was true of Jesus,

then it must also be true

of those of us

who follow Him.

The ministry of Jesus

was one of strength

exercised in gentleness

and in restoration.

Bruised reeds

were handled with care.

Faintly burning wicks

were nursed back to flame.

Jesus came as a servant.

So as you come

to trust Him,

know

that He will hold you

tenderly in His hands.

And as we seek

to follow Him,

let that be true

for us as well.

Let us be servants.

And may we find

that His joy

becomes complete

in us.

Let's pray together.

Our Father in Heaven,

as we take a minute

and just pause

in the quiet

of this moment

to be before You,

our Creator,

and to take deep breaths

of air

that You have provided

and to just sense

our bodies

that You have given to us.

God, help us to see

our need

for a Savior.

Help us to see

the ways in which

the false gods

that we worship

under whatever name

we give them

have left us empty.

But help us to see

now, Father,

the substance

and the justice

and the joy

of Jesus,

our Savior.

by Your Holy Spirit,

allow our hearts

to reach out

to Him in faith

and in grasping Him

to know

that we are taken

hold of by You.

We pray this

in His name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.