Isaiah 49 vs 1-13

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verse 1

·     Is Isaiah talking about Cyrus? Is he talking about himself? Is he talking about Jesus? Is he talking about Israel as a nation? The answer is, absolutely!! If you go strictly by verse 3 of this chapter, he is talking about Israel. However, in context of this section of his book, and really the entire chapter, He is talking most likely about Jesus, the coming Savior of the world! Even Cyrus fits, even talking about himself fits, why? Same reason you fit!

·     Last week we heard him say, in verse 8 of the previous chapter, that you and I and everyone, we were called a transgressor from the womb. Remember that? And yet here is another truth of every single human being. Every decedent of Adam and certainly one that I personally hold to with confidence. Every person, you, me (I know that I know this), we were all called by God by name from even before you were born.

·     God has a plan for you, He has a plan for Me, its just as detailed as any plan He has ever put together for anyone else. Because He’s that big…, and my life mission, as is many others, is to navigate daily in accordance and conjunction with His Word and will so that I don’t miss my calling. Missing what God has for me…, for you, living really within my own senses alone, emotions and learning only from experience, rather than trusting God’s Word and seeking to grow in Him, is that I find myself asking (some people for seasons and some for their entire lives), why am I here? Why was I even born? But when you are walking in your calling (which by the way you don’t have to figure out, your calling is simply to know Him and to be loved by Him) then you don’t wonder that! Everyday its answered and even in new ways all the time!!

·     In greatest context however of the rest of this chapter, it is most right to accept that this is speaking of the coming Messiah. In Micah 5:2, for example, Jesus was called forth even before being in the womb and then specifically in Luke 1:31, Jesus is called by name from the womb. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.”

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 2 – 4

·     Odd words perhaps coming from Jesus but think about the discouragement He must have faced from all angles. The crowds followed Him for how they would personally benefit, and when the personal benefit stopped, they stopped. The leaders of His people hated Him and worked His entire life to silence Him, even from birth. His closest followers didn’t even care to stay awake in His time of greatest need. And even at the cross, only one remained, and that was after public betrayal of Judas and Peter…

·     But all the while, Jesus remained on mission. No matter the discouragements of the day, He would stay focused. Certainly, sometimes needing to be alone with the Father, but ultimately knowing what His faithfulness would afford, calling that here in Isaiah 49, His just reward…

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 5 – 7

·     We do see presented the plan of salvation for the Jew and the gentile. Something that would have been so out of place for Isaiah to write and probably would have caused him to be disrespected during his time but also shows that he was writing in the place of the coming Savior and not his own.

·     This gives us a delineation between God’s plan for Israel and God’s plan for the gentile world. There are those today that say that God is through with the nation of Israel but to get there you have to torture the scriptures. Replacement Theology and Reformed Theology, you have to dismiss certain scriptures to accept. Correct theology should be able to incorporate all of the scriptures…

·     And I absolutely love the statement set we see here that first it is said that the King of kings was formed in the womb to be a Servant, and as a Servant, check this out…, a Servant of rulers, kings will stand for Him and princes shall worship Him. Why, because of His faithfulness and His holiness, yes, but also due to a mystery revealed by Jesus Himself about life in general…

·     Matthew 20:25-27, “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.” I hope you discover this for yourself in your life. Those that don’t have to serve others and yet do, these are the greatest and not only in the eyes of God. They command the respect of the room in time…

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 8 – 9

·     This would be a great hope to read when in captivity in Babylon and the statement is as God has said before, that where we should find desolation, by all reason and human calculation, God will bring for His people a blessing… Just as when we deny our flesh and instead trust the Lord, where we think we will be so put out, God shows His faithfulness!

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 10 – 13

·     This is cool because what this implies is that when the people of God are on the path of God both they and heaven rejoice together and even the earth is blessed! If folks really want to save the planet, trust the Word of God!

·     And there is one statement here that is incredible! I mean, they all are but I want to shine the spotlight on the statement, “I will make each of My mountains a road, and my highways shall be elevated.” This is the way that trusting God works and why many don’t know the intense faithfulness of God and therefore find it hard to trust Him and His ways, especially when the Word of God goes against their emotions and perhaps even intuition.

·     But, have you ever seen mountains from miles away!? They look like walls. And faced with the task to get over them, the enemy offers the helicopter of hellish and fleshly ways… But as you just keep going…, just keep moving forward, not knowing how you’re going to get over the mountain but trusting God because He told you to, you get closer and closer and then finally so close and there it is…, the way… And its elevated. Able to be defended, easy to see and stay on…, the hard part is that time between seeing the mountain and the revelation of God’s faithfulness. Because its then you’re just treading forward without full knowledge. THAT is called faith. And the more highways you find, (and they are always there), the more confident you become AND your intuition flips from following self to following the Word of God. Why? Because He is who He says He is…

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 14 – 16

·     Thick Messianic prophecy there, right? God has essentially tattooed His own covenant into the palms of His hands. No doubt that was the thought then but we look back to the cross of Christ and know that this was a prophecy, (this chapter all together), of the Savior that would come, serve us and the Father, be hated and rejected of men, and give His life on the cross for the justice and the forgiveness of sin!

·     And we will see these marks one day. After resurrecting Jesus said in John 20:27, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing!”

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 17 – 24

·     Fulfilled by Pharoah in the 13th century BC. Fulfilled when the Persian Cyrus the Great ended the exile in 538 BC. Fulfilled by the nations of the world on May 14th, 1948…

Isaiah Chapter 49 Verses 25 – 26

·     Why? Why all these things and promises upon this people? Not really anything to do with them but everything to do with the Word of God. Word is bond in us, and you and I are only as good as our word…, how much more a holy and perfect God!? All of these things will accomplish. All of these things and all of God’s Word and as we learn and observe time and time again God’s incessant perfection in His Word…, all flesh (that’s me and you) if we are paying attention, will progressively grow in our own faith and knowledge of God as Savior, Redeemer and the Mighty One!