Isaiah 45 vs 1-25

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 1 – 3

 As mentioned at the end of the study last week, this naming of Cyrus

is overly remarkable. Cyrus won’t be born for another 150 – 200

years! Cyrus will be the deliverer of the people of Israel from a

captivity that they know nothing about and won’t for yet another 100

years! Isaiah himself won’t live to see it either. And yet God takes

Isaiah’s pen and records these unknown events and this unknown

Persian by name!

 An interesting factoid (that’s a fun word!) is that Josephus writes

about Cyrus that someone gave him at some point a copy of the scroll

of Isaiah and he read this chapter and said, “This is me!” Josephus

wrote, “These things Cyrus knew from reading the book of prophecy

which Isaiah had left behind two hundred and ten years earlier.”

 Cyrus, the man that no one knew, from the nation that no one knew

about, picked up the Word of God written about him hundreds of years

ago (that’s like someone writing something about you before the Civil

War!) and said, “That’s me! I am the anointed one! The one that God

has held my right hand!” How? I wonder, if just like I can do, he

could look back over his life and most certainly see divine attention…

Can you?

 It says here, hundreds of years before it occurred, precisely what

would happen. Double doors open, gates that are not shut, crooked

places straight… We have the account of Cyrus taking over Babylon

in Daniel Chapter 5, partially, and the Greek historian Herodotus

writing of the event in the 400s BC, fills in the details for us…

 He writes that while King Belshazzar of Babylon (now Nabonidus

(who favored the moon god “Sin”) was actually in power but had

made his son Belshazzar (traditional “Marduk” worshipper) coregent

and spent much of his reign in Arabia) was having his party described

in detail in Daniel 5, Cyrus entered the city by diverting the flow of

the Euphrates, lowering the level of the river and bringing his army in

through the water under the river-gates (crooked places being made

straight). AND, the bronze gates of the inner walls had been left

inexplicably unlocked and so Cyrus waltzed right in and took the city

just as God had described in detail in Isaiah Chapter 45!

 Have you ever heard, “You can trust an unknown future to a known

God?” Well, on display here, adding to that, “You can trust an

unknown future to a KNOWING God!” Unknown king, unknown

kingdom, unknown events, unknown victory, unknown all of it…,

and yet hundreds of years before it, KNOWN by a knowing God!

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 4 – 7

 I love this because God is like, “PLEASE, pay attention!” This thing

that I am doing, can do and DID, nothing and no one else can do!

There is nothing and no one like Me so please, stop the insanity and

let’s talk. I love that!

 This bit about God creating darkness and calamity, don’t let that

confuse you and throw you for a loop because it most certainly can.

One thing that is true of any person is that you must know the person

in order to understand them. That’s true with anyone. Why does this

person say this, do this, react like this, love this, not like this…, all of

those things are confusing and even hidden in a way unless you know

that person personally.

 The way we can know God is through His Word. I do realize and

appreciate that you and I have personal relationships with God but the

enemy is slick and he likes to interrupt God, put on his God costume

and play to our weaknesses to convince us that God is someone who

He is not. We see that ALL over our culture.

 God loves and accepts all of my sin. Nope. Not even close. God is

against every form of sin and does not accept any part of it. God

knows my heart (and that’s a good thing). God does know your heart

and that’s why He sent Jesus. God wants me to be happy. No, God

wants you to be holy. Because that is what is going to make you

content. God is eros (love). No God is agape (love). The list goes on

and on because when we accept grace without truth then we make

God in our own image.

 And so, we get to know God by His grace (our personal connection)

AND by His truth (by the revealed identity of God in His Word).

AND…., we know the Word tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is

not the God of confusion, so He does not create confusion, or chaos.

AND…., we know the Word tells us in 1 John 1:5 that in Him is no

darkness at all… So, when you come to something like Isiaah 45, you

have to interpret the Word of God using the Word of God or you will

get the wrong god…

 What’s this mean then? That God has foretold what will happen if I

don’t trust Him. I will sow into my own life calamity. And that God

has foretold what will happen if I don’t trust Him. That darkness will

enter… These things aren’t necessarily even “used” primarily by God

but simply the truth being revealed in my life as the wrong path is

chosen… Those paths being revealed and even defined by God clearly

in His Word and therefore Isaiah 45 comes into conformance with all

of scripture…

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verse 8

 A bit of a process here described by Isaiah… Righteousness is being

sent from above just as it was in the Person of Jesus Christ. And

notice, the earth opens to receive the righteousness. My part is to

open my heart of hearts to the Person and specifically the grace AND

authority of Jesus Christ and from that salvation comes forth. Sounds

like a birth…, or a re-birth! And then quite naturally, like the rains on

a grass field, righteousness springs up. This is what the Lord has

designed…

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 9 – 10

 We’re talking brown grass, dried and cracked earth, patchy fields filled

with weeds…, resisting what God gives and has given, His design,

doesn’t change the design, it changes the result. And God has made it

somewhat easy. Your entire life, my entire life is an open book

test…, and it was the same for the nation of Israel!

 Knowing that God is the Designer of all things should at least make us

hesitant to oppose Him in any way. If He is the Designer, He knows

what is best for us. Since He is the Designer, we sort-of owe Him our

lives anyway! And the one thing more foolish than resisting God is

determining there is no God at all…, “Shall Your handiwork say, ‘He

has no hands?’”

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 11 – 13

 Notice how the Lord speaks of His sons in verse 11 and then switches

to a singular “him” in verse 13? Contextually and prophetically for

Israel the text is talking about Cyrus but I also see something

spectacular in this. All sons of God, all daughters of God are in

Him. What makes me a son of God is that I am pressed into Jesus by

the nails that went into His hands AND by my striving to enter into

my own personal walk and transformation unto Him. I hope that

makes sense…

 I have sons, but they can certainly live as not being my sons if they

choose. They will never not be my sons. That’s a done deal, and they

are only my sons because we are family however the benefit of being

my son is only fully realized through right relationship…, think of the

prodigal son. He took his father’s money and lost his father. He came

back and the money was gone but he gained all… The point is that if

we are walking with the Lord, saved and sealed, these are they which

qualifies me as a son…

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 14 – 18

 There’s an interesting perspective introduced here by Jon Courson that

I just want to hit on briefly. It says here that God did not create the

earth in vain. That is the Hebrew word “tou,” pronounced “to-hoo.”

In Genesis 1:1-2 we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens

and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness

was on the face of the deep.” That word in Genesis for “void,” is

“tou.”

 Ok, so Genesis says that in the beginning the earth was void and yet

Isaiah says that the earth was not created that way, void. So, what’s

going on here? We don’t exactly know. But this is a good proof text to

explain two things if you so choose. The first is the timeline for when

Satan was cast to the earth.

 It would appear to make sense that God created the earth… and then at

some point after that, (before the seven days of creation including

mankind), Satan was cast to the earth causing it to become “void and

darkness on the face of the deep.” AND, this is a good way to explain

what is known as Gap Theory. That God didn’t create the earth with

the appearance of age but rather it is an old earth with a huge time gap

between verses 2 and 3 in Genesis… Either way, its interesting and

that’s about it. Again, the important things in the Bible are entirely

clear, this most certainly is not…

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 19 – 21

 God has not only made things clear, spoken things openly and

outright, but He also is entirely merciful and graceful in that even

when we are in a broken and sinful state, He invites us to hear Him

and to draw near to Him…

Isaiah Chapter 45 Verses 22 – 25

 Over and over again God declares that He is the only hope for His

people. There is no other. And even as they and we fall short, His call

to us is incessant, why? Because we are so awesome! Not at all,

really. It’s because He is so awesome! Overlooking offenses a

thousand times over because of the sacrifice He Himself provided and

made for me…, and…, His desire for me, what He has for me, when I

do become His field (if you will), His son in right relationship?

Strength, righteousness, shame removal, peace, justification and a

life that moves from glory to glory!