Isaiah 44:6-23 - Trusting the Only One who Knows All

Jesse Livermore was born in 1877.

He was known as a very gifted child, reportedly able to read and write by the age of three and a half, and by the time he was five, he was reading the financial sections of the newspaper.

Strange child, he was nicknamed.

At the age of 14, he ran away from home and moved to Boston and put himself at work under a brokerage firm.

He was nicknamed the Boy Plunger.

He made a million dollars in one day in 1907, the equivalent of nearly $20 million in our day.

At the age of 29,.

By shorting the market, his lifestyle began to match his success.

He bought yachts and private rail cars and mansions.

He joined elite clubs.

He was in the top of society.

He was a celebrity.

He was a speculator that was admired and envied by all those who worked around and invested in the stock market.

In 1924 and 1925, he made another $10 million trading wheat and corn, the equivalent of close to $200 million.

In 1929, when the stock market crashed, while others were losing their life savings, livermore earned $100 million, nearly $2 billion.

But the very system that he trusted, his instincts, his strategies, his brilliance would soon betray him.

After the stock market crashed, new government regulations came in and shifted market dynamics, and all of that began to chip away at his confidence.

He tried to adapt, but the foundation that he had built his fortune on, his financial acumen, became a source of instability.

Once worshipped by the press, once envied by peers, Livermore spiraled into bankruptcy, depression and loneliness.

And in 1940, at the age of 63, in Manhattan, he died by suicide.

And he left a note behind that whispers some of his heartbreak my life has gone wrong, I am tired of fighting".

And he died.

Livermore trusted in something that dazzled him and dazzled the world, but ultimately it proved unable to bear the weight of his soul.

A question for us to ponder.

Where are we putting our trust today?

Where are we investing ourselves in?

Are we, like Livermore, trusting our instincts, trusting our intellect?

Or are we trusting deeply in a relationship, a career, a routine, our possessions, those things that promise to us security or identity or happiness?

Are they leaving you searching?

Still Too often, we chase after things that speak loudly for a moment, but they don't sustain us over the long term.

And Isaiah, chapter 44, meets us at the crossroads.

Isaiah 44 · chapter mention

It speaks to us not only about a sobering critique of idolatry, but also about a stunning promise of grace that comes to God, from God, to weary people, instead of casting us off in our folly, god in this chapter speaks tenderly and he says remember these things you are my servant, I have made you, I will not forget you.

And Isaiah unveils for us God who doesn't compete for our attention with charm, but one who lays claim to our hearts with covenant love and with relentless intention to redeem and to forgive undeserving people.

As we go through Isaiah, chapter 44, we're going to consider four movements in this section of scripture, beginning in verse 6, going down to verse 23.

Isaiah 44 · chapter mention

These invitations and these movements from God draw us in to remember that God made us.

God knows us and God refuses to settle with us worshiping others.

He desires for us to come to him, that we might find the fullness of his redemption and his forgiveness.

In verses 6 to 8, we're going to discover that God will declare his unrivaled identity.

I'm the first and the last he says there.

Verses 9 to 20, he's going to expose the foolishness and the folly of idolatry.

Verse 21, he's going to affirm his covenant love.

And then the last two verses we'll look at verses 22 and 23,.

God invites us to a response of worship and praise.

Let's begin in verse 6.

We're going to see God declaring here his unrivaled identity as we step into this chapter that speaks a lot about idolatry.

It doesn't start with critique, it starts with proclamation.

The Lord draws a line in the sand of time itself and he declares himself as the first and the last.

Declares himself as the first and the last Before we get into the section where he confronts the idols.

He declares for us that he is the one and only true God and in rapid fire succession he describes himself in several ways.

Let's take a look at this in verses six to eight.

In verse six, he says that he is the only God.

He says there there is no God but me.

God declares that he's not one among many, maybe better than the others, but rather he is solitary.

He is the only God.

He is the singular, unshared, unbounded God.

He doesn't compete with powers.

In fact, he defines reality itself and he exists alone, without origin, without rival and without any dependency.

And everything that we see and everything that is unseen depends on him, because by him and for him was it created and is it sustained, and to whom it is subjected.

Because he is the sovereign Lord.

He stands outside of time, and yet he's the one that made it and acts within it.

He is infinite and yet intimately present.

But that's not all he says.

Like I said, in very rapid, bullet, firing succession, he offers these statements.

He also tells us, in verse six, that he is the king and redeemer of Israel, his chosen people, and redeemer of Israel, his chosen people.

He doesn't just define himself in this altogether otherly way, as the one and only God who is above all things.

He also brings himself right down into the very lives of these people and says that he is their king and their redeemer.

This infinite God, as I said a moment ago, is intimately related to people.

He is personal.

He also is, in verse 6, declared to be the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts.

Here, in this translation, it says the Lord of armies, and it declares himself to be the commander of all things seen and unseen, every single power that exists, whether it is in human form or unshapen spirits.

He is the Lord and master of them all.

He reigns over every dominion.

Also in verse six, he is called the beginning and the end.

Also in verse 6, he is called the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

And here he declares his eternal nature and his exclusive divinity.

God was in the beginning Genesis 1-1, and God will be at the end of time as well as he ushers the new heavens and the new earth into that eternity and he controls every single day between the two.

A number of religions in this day of Isaiah's and a number of religions in our day envision history as recurring cycles, just moving from one cycle to another, and some people even see their own personal existence as going through one phase of a cycle to another.

And some people even see their own personal existence as going through one phase of a cycle into another cycle of existence.

But here, by this statement, the Lord says that he's the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

He is abolishing that perspective and telling us that existence is linear, it has a beginning and it will have an end.

It's not just an endless cycle that goes over and over and over again.

And then, if you look at verse eight, you'll see one more statement that he makes about himself.

He says is there any other God beside me?

There is no rock.

I know not one.

And God uses this metaphor of a rock to portray himself as matchlessly reliable, as faithful beyond any other thing, who upholds by his strength those who depend upon him.

That's what we mean when we say God is our rock Reliable, faithful, dependable and strong.

There's no other foundation that can bear the weight of eternity for us than Him.

This is how God introduces the subject of idolatry by pointing to Himself first, by giving these bullet markers for the people of Israel to remember who he is.

And it calls to us to ask ourselves are the things that I'm trusting, the things that I've invested my life in, the things that I've hoped would bring me to places of security and safety and satisfaction, do they in any way compare to Him?

My belief system, my identity, my achievements—are they hung on something more secure than this, than the living God?

And if not, why are we trusting those things rather than Him?

Only the Lord can speak with absolute clarity over time and in eternity, who can speak with absolute truth and purpose and design.

And with that as a backdrop, god now launches into the most extended portion of this section by exposing the foolishness and futility of idolatry.

Having established by these words his unmatched identity, he now turns the spotlight on the idols and claims our devotion.

And what unfolds in these next several verses is not just a critique, it's biting satire.

Isaiah peels back the illusion of idolatry.

It invites us to laugh but then invites us to mourn because we too have been caught up in it.

Let's see what he has to say about the foolishness of idolatry in verse 7.

Who is like me?

Who can announce the future?

Let him say so and make a case before me.

Since I've established an ancient people, let these gods declare the coming things and what will take place.

God throws down the gauntlet to these people who are serving idols and says Can any of them tell the future?

Can one singular one speak about what's going to occur with any kind of definitiveness?

And God puts up his ante with the challenge.

He said here's what I'm going to do for you.

And if you look at verse 28 at the end of this chapter, and if you look at verse 28 at the end of this chapter, the Lord says here well, let me back up just a verse.

Who says to the depths of the sea be dry and I will dry up your rivers.

Who says to Cyrus, my shepherd, he will fulfill all my pleasure.

And say to Jerusalem she shall be rebuilt into the temple, its foundation will be laid.

Verse one of the next chapter.

The Lord says this to Cyrus, his anointed, whose right hand I've grasped to subdue kingdoms before him, to disarm kings to open doors before him and even city gates will not be shut.

Kings to open doors before him and even city gates will not be shut.

God names stunningly and uniquely in this place, a prophecy about a person and mentions his name that this is the man that God is going to raise up to set the exiles free, to rebuild the towns of Judah, to restore Jerusalem and its temple worship.

This was a hundred years before Cyrus was even born.

Cyrus, the Medo-Persian, did rise and brought the Babylonian empire to nothing, and we can read historical accounts of his rise and of his permission to the people of Jerusalem to return from captivity, out of Babylon, to go back to the land and, with his investments, restore the city and the temple.

So the message is here is clear.

God looks at the idols and says can you name a person a hundred years from now who's going to rise and do the things that I tell him to do?

Of course not, and to drive home the foolishness of idolatry.

Isaiah digs deeper by ushering us into a couple workshops, each exposing the empty spectacle of man-made worship.

And in verses 9 to 11, we see the first scene where an artisan is shaping a God in his own image.

And it isn't the worship of a divine being, it's self-worship wrapped up in the cloak of religious devotion.

In verses 9 to 11, we can see that All who make idols are nothing, and what they treasure benefits no one.

Their witnesses do not see or know anything, so they will be put to shame.

Who makes a god or cast a metal idol?

That benefits no one.

Look, all its worshipers will be put to shame.

The craftsmen are human.

They will all assemble and stand.

They'll all be startled and put to shame After they've made this idol.

Verse 11 speaks of the foolishness of this activity.

And if I could paraphrase verse 11, I would put it this way All the guildsmen have gathered and they stare in horror at this God that fails to even resemble them and, embarrassed, they hold a meeting, realizing that their creation is powerless it's nothing but a shapen hunk of metal.

In verses 12 and 13, the iron worker labors in heat and grows exhausted as he forges a God who can't even quench his thirst or restore his strength.

And Isaiah's point is sharp here If a man grows weary, making his God, he is making something that can't even deal with the weakness that he's exerted, the strength that he's exerted in order to make that God.

How can this thing that was created exert any other power if it can't even take care of the craftsman himself?

And then it takes us into another workshop the woodmaker, the woodworker.

In this scene he speaks and talks about a person spending a lot of time and effort, gathering a lot of intelligence and knowledge in order to acquire the best materials possible in order to form another idol.

Take a look at verse 13.

The woodworker stretches out a measuring line, he outlines it with a stylus, he shapes it with chisels, he outlines it with a compass, he makes it according to human form, like a beautiful person to dwell in a temple.

He cuts down cedars for his use.

Or takes a cypress or an oak, he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.

He plants a laurel and the rain makes it grow.

So here's a person with skill and precision, carefully selecting the right materials, fashioning it with acquired artistry.

And what does he do?

He takes this piece of wood and he cuts it up into different sections.

Part of it he burns in a fire to warm his body, part of it he sticks under his food to cook his meal, and then part of it he fashions and then bows down to it as if it possessed some divine presence.

The same wood that would sustain their life by way of food and warmth is now bowed down to as if it were divine.

And the irony of Isaiah here is biting and chilling this man rising up and exerting his strength to bow down to something that's connected to the things that simply cooked his food and warmed his flesh.

You see, idolatry is not just irrational, it's an inversion of God's created design.

In the book of Genesis, in chapter one, in verse 27, it said that God formed Adam and Eve in his own image, and so the living God endued humanity with all the dignity of his person and secured humanity to live in reflection of his glorious person as we lived out our life here on earth.

And it's so degraded in this position that there's a man who's created in the very image of God is now taking a hunk of wood and fashioning it out so that it might look like His person, and it's not dignity at all.

It's disturbing, and it's not dignity at all.

It's disturbing and it's degrading.

Here was once a mind that was designed to pursue the truth.

Who is God?

Who's now been dulled by iniquity and repetition and religious habit until it comes to the place of absolute assertivity, and its devotion is nothing but a degrading step downward, and downward, and downward.

But Isaiah isn't here just to condemn idolatry.

He demolishes its logic, invites us to see its shame, but he wants us to remember who he is, who God is, the one true God who never grows weary, who never needs refreshment, who never springs from the leftovers of the wood that we use to cook our food with.

And so, in verses 18 to 20, he moves to the futility of idolatry.

He moves to the futility of idolatry.

The tone changes here.

Isaiah started with vivid satire and he stripped idolatry of any pretense that it's not divine, it's actually absurd.

But now the tone sobers and Isaiah's voice softens.

God is not laughing here anymore, he's grieving, and the idolater, who was once the subject of satire, is now the object of sorrow.

And the prophet invites us to stop whatever laughter we might have had witnessing the foolishness of idolatry and begin to start weeping ourselves over the tragedy that this is Because the reason why people are caught up in idolatry has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence.

It has nothing to do with being caught up in superstition.

It's all about spiritual bondage and darkness.

Superstition, it's all about spiritual bondage and darkness.

The soul is lost in a fog so thick that even the light seems foreign to them.

Take a look at verse 18.

Such people do not comprehend and cannot understand.

You see, this person is more than just uninformed.

They're spiritually blind.

Their ability to reason has been judged.

Their eyes don't see and their ears don't stir.

And they can't even look at what they're doing and capture the absurdity of it all.

They can't even recognize the emptiness of it.

They're driven to do it because their delusion runs deep into them.

And in verse 19, the idolater can't even ask a question.

No one comes to his senses.

Idolater can't even ask a question.

No one comes to his senses.

No one has the perception or the insight to say I burned half of it in the fire.

I also baked it on its coals, I roasted meat and ate.

Should I make something detestable with the rest of it?

Should I bow down to a block of wood?

This soul has been reshaped by its blindness, so much so that its reasoning is silenced, its reflection is impossible and its repentance is out of reach.

In verse 20, he feeds on ashes.

His deceived mind has led him astray and he cannot rescue himself or say isn't there a lie in my right hand?

You see, this deception is not just strong, it's total.

The worshiper isn't just holding on to a lie, the lie is holding on to the idolater.

And Isaiah laments over this.

This is not laughter and mockery, this is weeping.

What about the degradation of the human race?

To chase after empty things like this and think that they might be able to sustain us or help us or give us hope?

But this isn't about ancient idols, is it?

This is a human story that plays out every day, even in our day.

This is a human story that plays out every day, even in our day.

We don't craft our idols out of wood.

We curate them.

On Instagram, celebrities and influencers become the objects of our near religious devotion and we pour out our time, our emotion and money to become one of them, or to get close to one of them, and our proximity, thinking that our proximity to that sort of fame might offer some identity or worth to us, but there's no deliverance there, there's no power there, or perhaps it's the pursuit of a career, and Americans, we are bad about this.

One of the first questions you meet somebody that's new to you what do you do?

Why is it that one of the first things we ask about a person is what their job is, instead of learning about where they were born, what kind of family they grew up in, what kind of things they like to be or to do?

We ask this question what do you do?

Because our identities are wrapped up in our careers.

As Americans, we build our entire lives around that achievement, believing it's going to satisfy our soul.

But once you get into the day-to-day work of a job, burnout, layoffs and retirement are in your future.

It's an idol that proves to be nothing but a bitter taste in the mouth at the end, and a lot of people die shortly after they retire because they've invested themselves so much in their identity at work that they're cut off, adrift from any kind of life of satisfaction afterwards, and within six months, most people who retire are gone.

Materialism, designer brands, new tech, luxury comforts Boy, if I just get the next iPhone, not remembering?

A year ago you were saying the same thing about the previous generation that you're just happy to turn in now?

What about those belief systems that we hear raging around in newspapers and social media?

Customized ideologies that are meant to justify our choices, to reinforce our desires, to affirm our self-image the way we would want it to be crafted, the way we would want it to be crafted, and they all work until they don't, until they crash in, until it exposes the cracks.

It can no longer hold us up.

Addiction and escapism, whether it's substances or pornography or binging entertainment.

The promise is relief, but the results are chains.

Isaiah's language here is fitting feeding on ashes.

What about a spirituality that's divorced from God's truth?

When people chase peace, they like to have a good vibe, energy, they'd like to have the favor of the universe, and so they develop an ideology or a religion in which all of it might come into some sort of harmony with them and the universe, but the orbit is themselves and not the Savior.

The things that they believe offer transcendence, but they leave them also empty, because they're not built upon the truth of who God is.

And like the people that worship the golden calf, when Moses was on Mount Sinai making an idol, they gave up their treasures, they melted them down, they shaped an idol with trembling hands.

So we too melt our time, we melt our talents and we melt our treasures down and invest them in things that can never satisfy us.

We craft idols that look like our longings but can never fill them.

And once we've shaped them, we bow down to them, but we can't rise the same, because every time we bow down to those idols, we are drawn deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the deception that will trap our soul.

So much so that, he says, the deceived mind has been led astray and he cannot rescue himself.

And we've forgotten how to ask.

Isn't there a lie in my right hand?

Like Gollum with the ring, that object that we desire warps our souls.

Isaiah is making a plea here.

He is telling us don't wait until you start eating the ashes of your false hopes.

Awaken now, before you get so entrapped by the things that you're pursuing that you won't even be able to see a way out, or perhaps even want one until it's too late.

Ask yourself now is there not a lie in my hand?

Why am I trusting this?

But God doesn't stop there.

Wonderfully, he started by speaking about who he is by revealing His unrivaled identity to us and exposing the foolishness and folly of this idolatry.

But then he affirms His covenant love, in verse 21.

Remarkable again.

Remember these things, jacob, in Israel, for you are my servant.

I formed you.

You are my servant, israel, you will never be forgotten by me.

Just as the satire exposed the folly and foolishness of idolatry and moved us into the morning shame of recognition that we too have bowed down to things that can't satisfy, god now interrupts with tenderness and His tone warms to us.

Remember these things you are my servant, I will not forget you are my servant, I will not forget you.

Even though Israel had gone after these false gods of iron and wood, god's final word to them is not rejection, but a call to remember him and to return to him.

And he calls to them not because God has forgotten them, but they've forgotten him.

And here he makes this covenant affirmation that, as we see as we go through the rest of this part of Isaiah, finds its fulfillment in the one who will never forget us but bears our iniquity, and that is the servant, jesus Christ.

You see, christ is the servant that Israel failed to be.

He's not just recalling the covenant, but fulfilling it on our behalf.

And Isaiah will speak in foreshadowing songs, in chapters 49 to 53, about a Messiah who will carry the forgotten and restore the exile and redeem the weary, and he will be able to say about that one true servant, I will never forget you.

And these words are prophecies speaking forward, about a Christ and his ministry who seeks the lost and welcomes the outcasts and carries the cross to those who are spiritually forgetful.

Jesus is the rock the idols cannot imitate, and Jesus is the servant that Israel never did become, and he is the Redeemer who will never forget.

And so he ends with an invitation in verses 22 and 23.

I've swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist.

Return to me, for I've redeemed you.

Rejoice heavens, for the Lord has acted.

Shout depths of earth break out into singing mountains, forests and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorifies himself through Israel.

Like I said, there are four movements to this section of scripture and it moves again into a place of jubilant praise and song, and it's as if creation cannot hold back its voice.

Sing for joy, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob.

We find here an eruption of hearts, set free in creation unshackled.

Why?

Because God is a redeeming God who forgives iniquity In verse 22.

This isn't a call back to just being a monotheistic Jew.

This isn't a call back to faithful idol worship.

This is not a call back to giving away all the other idols that they might possess.

This is a call to praise in the recognition that God forgives sinful people.

His forgiveness is emphasized here and it's put in such a picturesque way.

It talks about His forgiveness as if it's lifting off like a cloud in a mist that's rising, and when the heat of the day rises in these valleys and that mist evaporates and it's not seen again for the rest of the day, the Lord is saying that is how your sins are going to be.

The morning mist of your iniquity and sin that had locked you into the deep valleys of delusion I'm going to wipe away so you'll be able to see with clarity for the rest of your life.

And this is why, in verse 23, sing O heavens, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob.

This redemption is not just personal, it's cosmic.

The creation here is called to join the redemption song the heavens, the depths, the mountains, the trees, the exiles hearing this, recognizing that the skies are growing brighter and the trees are spared from idol worship, and the whole chaos of human life, and the effect of the fall on all creation is now dissipating, because the Lord has done it, not man.

And so here we have, again a prophecy of a day in which even creation itself will be able to sing of the redemption that God is bringing.

This is more than just an announcement about the people in Babylon being called back to Jerusalem.

This is more than just Cyrus freeing Israel from there.

This is about Jesus freeing the souls from sin.

This is about his cross as the true declaration of our forgiveness.

And the heavens are singing, not just because the exile in Babylon has ended, but because the servant has redeemed a new heaven and a new earth, and one day it'll be able to sing, just as Romans 8 tells us that the creation is groaning for this Redeemer.

And the creation eagerly awaits with anticipation for the sons of God to be revealed, so that it might be set free from the bondage to decay and into the glorious freedom of God's children.

On that day, creation will sing with unfettered voice.

On that day, sin will be no more.

On that day, the mist and fog of deception and deceit because of disobedience will be forever gone.

You see, isaiah 44 is not just some theological treatise, very coldly, very systematically, very matter-of-factly, simply telling us about who God is in distinction from the idols.

What he's doing is trying to reorient our soul, to turn away from those things that are not going to satisfy, that are not going to fulfill, that are not going to be able to cover our guilt, but to reorient ourself to a God who is, yes, grand and glorious, but also good and merciful, because the glory of God outshines every rival and idolatry is not just wrong, it's wearisome and tragic and incapable of saving.

But God doesn't leave us as the object of ridicule, he makes us the object of His redemption.

And he doesn't just redeem us, he also rejoices over us when we return, and so these words may they ring in our hearts, return to me, for I have redeemed you.

If you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you don't need to serve those things that are exhausting you.

You don't need to give yourself any longer to those things that hold you to you no life, or eternal hope or help.

There's a Redeemer here who knows your name, like he knew jacob's name, and he invites you to return, to come to him, and he offers true peace, not just for life, but for eternity, through jesus christ.

You see, christ is the first and the last, the servant who carries our shame, the rock who bears our eternal soul and the Redeemer who will forgive us and restore us.

And if you're here this morning as a believer, may we be reminded of who our God is and may the seducing spirits that call for our allegiances in this world be shut out, so that we could always say I trust in the first and the last.

I trust in the one, the only one, who is.

I trust in him who holds time in his hand and me throughout eternity.

I trust in the one who is my rock, my defense, my shield, my security, my safety, my hope.

And may you not be caught up in those whispering words that the world offers, telling you that there's something better if you just turn away from him.

Let's pray together.

Father, we're so grateful that you're a God who is, as you are, grand and glorious in your person and yet also gracious beyond our ability to describe.

Where we would look at ourselves and, in light of who you are, understand that there's no hope for us to be simply left the consequences of our darkness.

But you've not done that.

You have come to us and committed once again to undeserving people, that you're a God who restores, who receives, who redeems, father, I pray that this morning there'll be those who will come to you by faith in Christ and find you a receiving, redeeming Lord, and, for those of us who know you, that we might be more resolved in our commitment to you, who is the living God, and we pray this in Christ's name Amen.