Awake, O Arm of the Lord: A Call to Prayer - Isaiah 51:9-13

Good morning. Have you ever wondered what makes up a good prayer to God?

Isaiah, in our passage today, gives us helpful insights into what true prayer is about.

My name is Pastor Simon Flynn, and here at Dillingham Moravian Church,

we delight in making disciples for Christ as we learn together the truths of God's Word. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege and joy it is to be able to hear from your Word.

May you teach us. May you open up our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit so

that we can assimilate. We can take in what you are teaching us through your word today.

Guide us, use us.

May you work in us to apply your message so that we can go out and make disciples

for you. We can live for you and for your glory.

In your precious son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. In the power of the Holy

Spirit, amen. Thank you.

Turn with me today to Isaiah chapter 51 verse 9 through 13.

Isaiah 51:9–13

Isaiah chapter 51 verse 9 through 13.

Isaiah 51:9–13

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh!

Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago!

Was it not you who chopped Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep,

who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over.

So the ransomed of Yahweh will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion,

and everlasting gladness will be on their heads.

They will obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

I, even I, am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies and of the Son of Man who is

made like grass, that you have forgotten Yahweh your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth,

that you tremble in dread continually all day long because of the wrath of the

one who brings distress,

as he makes ready to bring ruin.

But where is the wrath of the one who brings distress?

Previously in Isaiah chapter 51, God through Isaiah declared that if he, God,

Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

was able to take people like Abraham and Sarah and make from them a chosen nation

and make Abraham right before God, then God could ransom and free Israel from Babylon.

God through Isaiah also taught that God's people can live with joy and sing,

with thanksgiving, because God has promised that one day the Christ will return,

and He will completely restore Israel.

Additionally, Israel was to listen and believe that God would send forth His

law, that would bring justice to the world and be a light for everyone to see by.

God proclaimed to his people that his salvation has been sent forth and that

his salvation, based upon the righteousness of God, was coming.

The first truth I want to point out to you in Isaiah 51, verse 9-13,

Isaiah 51:9–13

is that as Christians, we are to pray for God to act as he has before us.

Isaiah wrote this in verse 9, Awake, awake, put on strength,

O arm of the Lord, awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep,

who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over?

The year that Abigail and I crewed together on the drift boat,

we had a fellow crewmate on that boat with us.

Now this man was a wonderful Christian brother and he was a very hard worker.

He could also sleep like he was dead.

It was so hard to wake this man up.

We even tried putting a plate of food next to his face so that he would smell the food and wake up.

Instead, he ended up putting his face in the food and he kept on sleeping.

But when our friend did wake up, boy, was he ever productive.

This concept of trying to wake someone up who is sleeping so that they can accomplish

something was what Isaiah was praying for.

Except Isaiah was pleading for God to wake up, and God is never asleep.

In verse 9, Isaiah was pleading with God on behalf of believing Israel.

This is the prayer of the believing Jews in captivity through Isaiah.

Isaiah urged God to wake up from his sleep and to clothe himself with strength.

The concept was of waking up and getting dressed and becoming active.

Israel had heard the promises of God from the prophets.

And Israel, through Isaiah, was praying for God to act on their behalf.

Isaiah called upon God to dress like a warrior and come down and fight for Israel.

Now Israel was asking this of God because God had done it before.

Let's look at Joshua chapter 5, verse 13 to 15.

Joshua 5:13–15

Israel was encamped before Jericho and ready to attack the city.

When Joshua, and this is what verse 13 says, when Joshua was by Jericho,

he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him

with his drawn sword in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

And he said, No, neither.

But I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped him and said,

What does my Lord say to his servant?

And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from

your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.

I want you to pay attention to Joshua's encounter. her.

A man was suddenly standing before Joshua, and Israel was about to go to war with Jericho.

And Joshua asked the man which side he was on, but the man answered, neither.

But I am a captain of the Lord.

Now, this angel was no ordinary angel, because Joshua, who had heard God's voice,

before, falls flat on his face before God.

And God doesn't tell him to get up. Like in other angel encounters,

those encounters, the angel says, no, get up. I am not God.

But in this one, the angel of the Lord does not contradict Joshua.

The angel of the Lord responded to Joshua as he did to Moses in front of the burning bush.

Take off your sandals because you are on holy ground.

Why was the place holy? because God was there.

Bible scholars believe that this was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ appearing to Joshua.

God came down personally to fight for Israel, but God challenged Joshua when

God replied that he was on neither side.

Israel was to be fighting on God's side according to God's plan,

not God fighting for men according to their plans.

Back in Isaiah chapter 51, this was the kind of personal involvement in the

Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

battle against the Lord's enemies that Israel in captivity was praying for.

Isaiah reminded God about his destruction of Rahab and the dragon.

Who were Rahab and the dragon? Earlier in Isaiah chapter 30,

Isaiah 30 · chapter mention

Isaiah prophesied that when Judah was faced up against Assyria,

Judah would turn to Egypt for help.

A commentator from Dallas Theological Seminary wrote, Judah's people were so

desperate for help that they were willing to risk hardship and go to great expense.

But Isaiah called Egypt a nation unable to help Rahab the do-nothing.

Rahab was the name of a female sea monster associated with the Leviathan who would do nothing.

Understandably, Rahab became a poetic cinnamon for Egypt And also for a demon behind Egypt,

When God overpowered the Egyptian soldiers in the sea at the Exodus,

Israel through Isaiah was reminding God About how he used his mighty power to

destroy Egypt And part of the Red Sea So that,

Israel could cross safely Again, believing Israel,

prayed for God to wake up and fight on their behalf as he had done in the past.

Isaiah's prayer had an important truth that we as Christians can learn from,

that when we pray during our trials, we are to remind God or repeat what he

has already done for his people and humbly ask him,

to act in this manner again.

Many of the major prayers of the Bible include a pleading to God to act as he had in the past.

Praying this way does not only remind God of what he's carried out in the past,

but this kind of prayer reminds us as well of what god has already done and

thus leads us to be grateful and trust the lord more,

maybe you're isolated home or you're struggling with illness and pain maybe

you're grieving over your loved ones who have died or you're grieving for your

loved ones who are not following the lord maybe you're out of work or financial struggling or.

Whatever trial or suffering you're going through, go to the Lord in humble confidence

and ask Him to act in the manner He has acted before.

Also, remind yourself of how God has worked in the past so that your faith and

trust in Christ may grow.

However, we need to remember that although God hears and He will act on our

behalf if we're obeying and loving Him, God will act His way and not ours.

The second point I want to bring to your attention from our Isaiah 51 passage,

is that as Christians, we are to constantly pray the promises of God.

Isaiah went on in Isaiah 51, verse 11. So the ransomed of the Lord will return

Isaiah 51:11

and come with joyful shouting to Zion, and everlasting joy will be on their heads.

Isaiah knew that captive Judah would return home to Jerusalem and Israel.

Isaiah knew that God's people would return with joyful shouting.

Isaiah knew that Israel would obtain gladness and joy.

The question is, how did Isaiah know that captive Israel would return home?

Because in verse 11, Isaiah was quoting exactly the prophecy that God gave him in Isaiah 35, verse 10.

Isaiah 35:10

God told Isaiah that he, the Lord, would bring the kidnapped Jews back home

to Jerusalem. And here's the important part.

Isaiah believed God.

Isaiah had complete confidence and trust that God would bring his people back home.

How could Isaiah look at the future and be so confident that its outcome would

happen as God foretold it?

Why was Isaiah so confident? Because God kept his promise open.

About fighting on their behalf against Jericho and the Canaanites against Egypt.

Isaiah had faith in God's promise for the future because God has always been faithful in the past.

And thus Isaiah prayed to God, pleading the promise that God had already made.

And Isaiah had complete trust that God would fulfill his promise because God's nature is faithful.

How does this apply to us as Christians? The heart of the book of Isaiah regarding

how a human is to respond to God was found in Isaiah 50, verse 10.

Isaiah 50:10

Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on your God.

We as Christians are to trust God for the future based upon the truth that God is always trustworthy.

And this includes our prayer life.

When we pray the promises of God, We are telling God of the promises that He

has already made and God acts.

However, when we pray the promises of God, we are also reminding ourselves of

those promises which grow our trust and joy in Christ as we believe them.

We, you and I, need to continually pray the promises of God so that we believe

those promises and trust God.

Not only are we to pray with trust that God will fulfill His promises,

but we are also to believe that joy will be given to us in God's timing.

And thus we are to be confident that joy will come.

I'm in the process of looking for wheeled string trimmers for the church,

and my search reminded me of what happened when I last bought one.

A number of years ago, I ordered a wheeled string trimmer from a company in the lower 48.

I ordered the machine in the spring because I thought, hey, if I ordered it

early, then I would get it in time for the first mowing of the grass.

Boy, was I ever wrong. Summer was almost over by the time I received that trimmer.

After all that time, my package finally arrived And not only did I receive one

trimmer I then received a second one Because the first one was mistakenly sent

to Nome And was believed not lost,

Unfortunately, I had to return the second trimmer back to the company My point

is, although it took a long time to arrive And went on a very extended trip

My trimmer finally reached me,

Isaiah's prayer teaches us that joy doesn't always come to us immediately,

But we often have to go through trials before joy reaches us,

Let's continue with Isaiah chapter 51 verse 11.

Isaiah 51:11

They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Let's look at the second part of Isaiah's prayer here in verse 11.

Isaiah prayed with confidence that as a result of God rescuing,

ransoming Israel, Israel would obtain gladness and joy.

I want you to notice that this joy and this gladness was not worked for by believing

Israel, but it had finally reached them.

The word obtain meant to reach.

The picture that is conjured up by this word is like when mail,

like when our two microwaves that we ordered never arrived, is sent to us here

in Dillingham or elsewhere in the bush via the post office or UPS.

Mail doesn't arrive in two days as is promised on Amazon.

Mail often takes many weeks to reach us here in the bush. And sometimes, not at all.

Mail being sent to us here is not a quick process, us, but it usually reaches

us. Emphasis on the usually.

This is like what Isaiah was assured of, except for Isaiah believed that although

Israel would go through horrendous sufferings and trials in Babylon,

joy and gladness would finally reach them.

That after all that time, they would have joy and that was certain and so isaiah

prayed for joy and gladness to reach israel and trusted god to make it happen,

there's an important principle about joy that we can learn from this verse,

We often want to have joy or to be immediately happy in response to hardships

or suffering or to have joy replace the suffering.

However, the joy of the Lord is sometimes given to us by the Lord after we have

gone through suffering and trials.

God does not always give us His joy during suffering.

The Lord wants us to trust in the Lord and rely on Him throughout the trials,

and that we obey Him by rejoicing in the trials as we remember,

what we have to be thankful from God for.

As James taught in James 1, that

admit the trial that we are to count the suffering and trial as all joy.

Then after the trial is over, the Lord rewards us with His joy.

The question we need to ask is, how can we as believers go through trials trusting

in God without having joy at the time?

To answer this question, we need to turn to Hebrews 12, verse 1 through 3.

Hebrews 12:1–3

This is what the author wrote. Verse 1.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,

let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles

us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,

who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,

and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So why did Christ Jesus endure the cross? Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him.

Jesus endured the cross because he was absolutely certain of his Father and

nothing, not our sin, not death, could ever interrupt his father's love for his son.

Jesus also endured the cross because he knew what prize lay on the other side of the cross,

the joy of seeing his father again, the joy of sitting next to his father and

receiving the glory and power and might due to him.

How did Jesus endure the cross? Now, please listen to this.

Jesus endured the cross because he despised the shame of it.

The word despise meant to consider something not important enough to be an object

of concern when evaluated against something else.

Meaning that Jesus so valued his Father and our well-being that the shame,

the suffering, the separation of the cross was nothing to him in comparison

to the Father and to loving us.

This, my friends, has to be the fuel of our lives.

This is why as Christians we can endure any hardship because we know that Jesus

Christ, Almighty and ever-living God, cared more about us than he did the suffering of the cross.

So how do we, as believers, go through trials and trusting in God without having joy at the time.

First off, we may not experience joy in our hardship,

but we are commanded to endure the race set before us, and we count our race

in our minds and our hearts with all its hardship as joy as we keep our eyes

on Christ, who is the joy set before us.

We also endure suffering because we know that there is no trial,

there is no suffering that we face on this earth that is equal to the glories

that awaits us in Christ's presence.

When we get to heaven, all our sufferings will be worth it.

Moreover, we can trust God even when we do not feel joyful because Christ is

more important and way more valuable to us than the trial or the suffering.

Even though Isaiah had complete confidence that God would act on behalf of ransomed

Israel and that God would bring joy to Israel, ransomed Israel needed encouragement

and a warning against fear.

Israel was to trust God who comforts them and be not afraid of humans.

And this is what God, through Isaiah, prophesied in verse 12.

I, even I, am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies and of the son of man who is made like grass?

That you have forgotten the Lord your maker, who stretched out the heavens and

laid the foundations of the earth?

That you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor,

as he makes ready to destroy.

But where is the fury of the oppressor?

Israel in captivity was subject to the continual cruel abuse and evil from the Babylonians.

And the very real and great temptation for Israel would have been to be afraid of the Babylonians.

The power and evil that the Babylonians had over the captive Israel would have

been overwhelming. It would have been frightening.

And yet God was commanding his people to keep focus on him, their God, who does comfort them.

God comforted Israel with his promises and provided for Israel in the multitude

of ways in their captivity.

God foretold through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 42, verse 11-12.

Jeremiah 42:11–12

Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing.

Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and

deliver you from his hand.

I will also show you compassion so that he, the king, will have compassion on

you and restore you to your own soil.

God was saying to his people that yes, Babylon can take you from your homes.

Yes, they can beat you. They can dismember you and torture you.

They can take away your names and your family. They can even take your life

from the lives of those you love, but they cannot make you be afraid. Why?

Because I am your God, I am your comforter, and I am with you.

Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 28 to 31, Do not fear those who kill the body,

Matthew 10:28–31

but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy

both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet not one of them will fall to the

ground apart from your father?

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear,

you are more valuable than many sparrows.

So what does this mean for us? As Christians, there are many things or people

that we are tempted to fear.

Death, cancer, war, evil people, the cultural shift in our country that is heading

towards hatred and persecution of Christians are all situations that are tempting to fear.

We can be tempted to fear getting old, the fear of losing our jobs,

losing our loved ones, losing our health and maybe our good looks.

We can fear never seeing our loved ones again. Maybe you're fearing racial injustice.

Whatever it is we fear, people or situations cannot make us be afraid.

Fear comes when we forget that God is God. Fear comes when we're not trusting that God is with us.

Fear creeps in when we lose sight of the truth that because of what Christ has

done for us, we can never lose the love of God and Jesus Christ.

Remember what Paul said in Romans 8, verse 35-39.

Romans 8:35–39

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation,

or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long.

We are considered a sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly

conquer through Him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,

nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,

will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what is God teaching us today? The Lord taught us that when we pray,

we are to remind God what He has already done for His people and humbly ask

for Him to act in this manner again,

reminding God of what God has already done and leads us to be grateful and trust the Lord more.

We have also learned that we as Christians are to pray the promises of God as

we trust God for the future based upon the truth that God is always trustworthy. worthy.

And lastly, God does not always give us His joy during the suffering.

Rather, the Lord wants us to trust in Him and rely upon the Lord throughout the trial.

I want to encourage us all that in all situations, including the tough times,

we, you and I as Christians, are to continue trusting in God.

Do not give up praying and remembering what God has done for us in the past,

confident of what He will do in the future.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father...

We thank you for the amazing love that you've bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ.

Forgive us, Lord, for our fear, the fear of so many things, which then leads to all kinds of sin.

Forgive us. Help us, O Lord, to truly trust you and to rest in you, to abide in you.

May we see when we see trials or we experience trials may we count them as joy,

that we obey you in those moments in those times and say i will rejoice because

i trust in god because i see what god has done for me in the past and done for others in the past,

in his word and i can rejoice because God is with me.

Lord, help us, help all that are listening.

Help me to live without fear, trusting in you so that we can obey you and share

your gospel and be examples of you in every circumstance.

In your precious son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. I'll leave you with

this blessing from Psalm chapter 67, verse one through two.

Psalms 67 · chapter mention

May God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us,

that your way be known on the earth, your salvation amongst all the nations. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord be with you.