Isaiah 41:1-7

0:01 All right, Isaiah chapter forty one, Isaiah chapter forty one. Hopefully we will make pretty good progress. If you consider all the work we did on Isaiah forty one, with the observational the observational outline, we've kind of already covered the chapter. I think we pretty much can make it through it relatively quickly. So we're going to probably go through sections relatively like you know, maybe one hour, one entire section. Maybe maybe in an hour we go through more than a section, or maybe we'll stumble upon something and then we'll end up taking much longer than I anticipate. But we know the chapter pretty well. But one of the I mean, obviously, the reason we're in Isaiah forty one, the reason we were in Isaiah forty the reason we'll be in Isaiah forty three all the way up to Isaiah fifty five. The reason we are there is because of my increasing frustration with how sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon handles Isaiah forty through fifty five. In fact, it's extremely I mean, it's disheartening. On the way here, I was listening to another sermon, this time on Isaiah forty one. Now that sermon I can't really complain about because for some weird reason, a sermon on Isaiah forty one never left the Book of Exodus. But okay, so I don't know why the text was Isaiah forty one.

1:15 I don't know what that was all about. But okay, so that I can't complain about that one because they didn't actually handle the text. Maybe maybe the last five or ten minutes they got to the text or referenced it, but I don't know why it was a sermon on Isaiah forty one. But over and over and over we have noticed that when it comes to Isaiah forty forty one, forty two, anywhere in that section Isaiah forty to Isaiah fifty five, and all over the Old Testament, they handled the text by making it about us, ignoring the original recipients, and I don't know, turning it into sermons more than a study of the text. And it is frustrating. Now, the good news is this week I didn't listen to any sermons on Isaiah forty one other than on the way here. Like I said, I can't really complain about that one. But this week there was another problem that I've spent all week dealing with that once again, I don't understand Christianity, but it very much connects with this.

2:09 On March the first, it was the three hundred and thirty three year anniversary at the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. That's when the first three women were interrogated or examined in Salem Village. And so I started just doing more work, more study on the Salem Witch Trials. Have done number of podcasts this week on all the things I know about the Salem Witch Trials. But what I found fascinating was if you look on the sermons sermonadio app and do a search for Cotton Mather, m at Er Cotton Mather, you will immediately see that there's all these sermons defending Cotton Mather, treating him as if he's like the hero of the faith. Now, I heard about Cotton Mather a million times in my Christian life.

3:00 Mather one of the Puritans. He's great Redcotton Mather, Re'dcotton Math or we'd gotten Mather. Well, when you start studying the Salem Witch Trials, I'm like, I don't know if I really want to study Cotton Mather. I think this guy is a full blown villain. In the story. I don't believe he's a hero in any way, shape or form. And if you don't know anything about Cotton Mather, about four years prior, about four years prior to Salem, there is an incident in Boston that led to the execution hanging of a woman by the name of Anne Glover. And it basically if you look at the case in Boston about four years before Salem starts it, it's kind of creepy on how like it sounds like the beginning of the Salem witch trials. It sounds like it sounds like the very I mean, it sounds like identical. It's like someone was following the script. It's insane how close the cases are related. Well, one of the connecting features is the man involved in the case in Boston is Cotton Mather, and then he writes a book. Well, that book ends up in the library of the pastor who it's his daughter and his niece who makes the first accusations, and lo and behold, it sounds identical to what happened in Boston. So there already is a connection between Cotton Mather.

4:19 But whatever one forgets is they use this thing in Salem called spectral evidence, where a person could be one hundred miles away, but you could say their spirit was tormenting me, and well that would make you guilty. And Cotton Mather supported this spectral evidence nonsense, which nobody should have ever accepted, but they did. Well, there was a former minister of Salem and his last name was Burroughs, and he's living in Maine. Now. He left Salem because he had all kinds of conflict with the congregation, had all kinds of difficulty. He goes to Maine. Well, when all of this craziness starts, guess what, they decide to accuse him of being a witch. So they go to man arrest him, bringing back to Salem. They're going to execute him. He's on the gallows. That put the rope around his neck. They're gonna kill him. Well, he recites the Lord's Prayer perfectly, which is what in Salem they said a witch could not do. Well, this should cause everyone to go this man's a minister. He just recited the Lord's prayer. Should we be killing this guy? Should we be killing this guy? So they're gonna stop the execution.

5:27 But guess who is there? Cotton Mather sitting on his horse, and Cotton Mather convinces everyone, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, guys, we don't stop. This is Satan appearing as an angel of light and they killing so and somehow God, I mean, I don't know, and now I know there's there will be people who will dispute that he wasn't even there. But in seventeen hundred, not that long after the Salem witch trials, a man writes an entire book outline in Cotton Mather being at that execution and doing what I just reported. And guess what, Cotton Mather never contradicted that claim in any way. All he did was one of the book burned, and they did book burnings in Boston.

6:14 But so Cotton Mather had every opportunity to refute the claim that he was there. He never refuted it. But in spite of all of that, you go in sermonaudio Christian after Christian minister defending Cotton Mather. I will never understand it as long as I live. And that just demonstrates over and over and over when it comes to preaching the text, when it comes to teaching church history, when it comes to teaching theology, it demonstrates over and over that there is something else that motivates there's something else that guides other than what The text is not the thing that guides us. We say that it is, but it's not the thing that guides us. It's not the thing that leads us. The text does not lead us.

7:07 Because anyone who studies Isaiah forty through fifty five, if the text is leading you, what should Isaiah forty through fifty five be about? About Israel or Judah in Babylonian captivity? Right, that's what it should be about. It should not be about us. But is that what happens in sermons? No, over and over and over. It's not. When we study church history what should motivate us. When we study church history, not to defend us, not to prove us. It's to learn what happened in the past, the reality of what happened in the past. It's not about finding the people who are on our team, are making it sound like someone was on our team, or defending them because we think they were on our team. That's not what we do.

7:55 We go study church history, and when we study church history, we're studying the lives of what kind of people sinners, right. But in our Christian mind, we can't approach it that way because we have all of these different motivations when it comes to the history. When it comes to the text, what should be the I'll state it this way. When it comes to the text, when it comes to church history, what should be the driving motivation in our study? There's one word starts with a T. Truth, just a pursuit of truth. I want to understand the text. I don't want to understand the text in order to preach a sermon. I want to understand the text for what reason? To understand the truth? Right? It doesn't matter what you're reading, it doesn't matter what you're studying. You should be doing so in order to find truth, not to support a particular philological team. I don't care about the theological team.

8:55 And so if it's just so frustrating that the study of Salem Christians can't get that right, It's like, I don't understand how you can get Salem wrong. I don't understand, like you can literally go there, okay, hey, like you can literally go there the facts. I mean, there's so much content available about Salem that for people to be ignorant of it is maddening. So listening to these Christians defend it makes me lose my mind. But I'm like, well, why should I be surprised. We can't get what happened three hundred and thirty three years ago right. We can't get what was right and the life of Christ can't.

9:36 We can't get anything right because Christians are motivated by something other than truth. That's what I's that's the that's I'm gonna just be dogmatic. Christians are not motivated by the pursuit of truth. We're motivated by the pursuit of our own theological team, our own bias, our own prejudice, our own selfishness. We are motivated by having a sermon that will make everyone happy so that we can have the churches that make enough money so that we can support things. Everything is motivated by something other than the pursuit of truth. We claim we want truth. Nobody wants truth. Nobody wants truth because if people wanted truth, they would handle theology differently, they would handle history differently. Church history is rarely handled correctly, rarely right. We study church history and next thing, you know, we turn this church father into somebody on our team. And if we went back at that time, the church father would be like, you're not on my team. Okay, we get out of here.

10:35 When we study church history about baptism, wouldn't it a weird crazy study baptizing people in the nude and they got to do this and they got to do that, And you're like, what in the world is this? Well, we don't go back, but what will most people do? Well, if you're a Presbyterian or a Lutheran, you go back to try to find anything in history that supports what infant baptism. If you're someone who doesn't believe in infant baptism, you only study church history to demonstrate what believers baptism or adult baptism. That's not how you do it. You go back and you're like, whatever I find is whatever I find, whether it agrees with me or whether it what disagrees with me, it doesn't matter. We don't but we have motives. We have motives in what we do.

11:23 So hopefully we can continue to try to be motivated to study Isaiah forty one on the basis of why why do we want to pursue truth no matter what it looks like? Okay, so let's go Isaiah chapter forty one, verses one through seven. Isaiah forty one one through seven. Let's see what we can do, all right. There was a part of me, because we kind of already covered this so good in the observational outline. I was like, well, says, I've been thinking about Salem all week. Let's just talk about Salem. But we're not going to do that because we need to at least finish Isaiah forty one. So here we go, Isaiah forty one one through seven. Let's just read the seven verses and then we'll see what you remember from the observational outline, all right. From the King James, Isaiah forty one, Verse one, keep silence before me, oh islands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come near together to judgment. Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it? Calling the generations from the beginning, I the lord the first, and

12:55 with the last, I am he verse five. Now I just realized something there. We could expand it on, but we won't be able to do so right now. But okay verse five. The isles saw it and fear. The ends of the earth were afraid, and drew near and came. They helped everyone his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer, him that smote the end will say it is ready for the soldering. And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. All right, Isaiah forty one one through seven. Now, if you remember our study of the observational outline, what did we reference this section about being about? Did we give it a title? What do we remember about Isaiah forty one one through seven? Right, God sovereignty over nations.

13:52 So if you want to kind of summarize this, Isaiah forty one one through seven is about God's sovereignty over nations and the futility of idols. God's sovereignty over nations and the futility of idols if you remember correctly, Isaiah forty one, Verse one kind of begins with what what is happening? In Isaiah forty one verse one? If you remember, you can look at it also it's open book. Yeah, it's kind of like a summons to court, right It Basically the chapter opens with a divine courtroom scene and where God calls who does he call? He calls the nations to present their case in a sense, right, This passage seems to serve as a theological bridge between the broad proclamation of God's supremacy and forty and now it becomes more specific assurances to Israel and the rest of Isaiah forty one. Remember we talked about that transition. It focuses on God's sovereignty over world events, and particularly the rise of a specific ruler is kind of beginning to be identified Isaiah forty one and Isaiah forty one. This ruler is not identified by name. How is he kind of described in Isaiah forty one one through seven? Where does he first show up in Isaiah forty one one through seven? This first, okay, the righteous man from the east.

15:19 Everybody see that his casine as a conquering key. Who is that most likely. I think I think it would be hard pressed to say with anyone other than Cyrus. Right, it has to be Cyrus. Now we're going to talk about all well, we may get to all the things everyone else does with that, but we we will go with that. Okay. So and at the end of that section of Isaiah forty one, it exposes the nation's fullish reliance on idols, does it not? I think it does? Okay? All right, So we've read Isaiah forty one one through seven. Now we're going to try to focus on kind of that's kind of an overview. Now we're gonna try to look at the context and structure and will break this down into a couple of parts. All right, we'll get We're gonna look at the immediate context. The immediate context, right, Isaiah forty declares God's supreme power over creation and nations.

16:15 We don't need to go back and demonstrate that. I think we've talked about that now about fifty thousand times, right, I think everyone feels comfortable with that fact. Isaiah forty one one through seven, God demonstrates his power over what what do you see God demonstrating his power over and Isaiah forty one one through seven. Okay, but yeah, he basically his power over history by raising up a ruler to execute his plan. Because what does he say in verse two? It's kind of almost asked as a rhetorical question. Who raised up the righteous man from the east? Called him to foot right? And it says all these things he will do? Right? Who hath done? Calling the generation from the beginning, and then he identifies who's done it?

17:05 What's the the end of verse four, I've done it. God is the one who's done He's the one in charge of this situation. Right. So forty one demonstrates his power over basically rulers or over history by raising up rulers. Isaiah forty one, eight through twenty. What happens in Isaiah forty one, eight through twenty It moves from God's power over nations and does it now begin to speak specifically about his relationship with Israel? Where do you see that in verses eight through twenty. Okay, hey literally names Israel right now. The reason I point that out? Why do I point that out? Because sermon after sermon after sermon for some weird reason, ignores Israel. Right. What happens in twenty one through twenty nine challenge of the idols. There we go, so Isaiah forty declares God's supreme power over creation and nations. But when you get to forty one, he demonstrates his power over history or over rulers. Forty one eight through twenty and moves from God's power over the nations to his special relationship with Israel and forty one twenty one through twenty nine, God challenges the idols.

18:18 There's the immediate context that has before the section and what comes after. So we've done. Everyone knows the context now, hopefully perfectly. All Right, if we look at a structural breakdown of verses one through seven, what do we have in verse one? We'll call it God's summons everybody, okay? With that summons to the nations? What do we have in two through four? Okay, we can call this rhetorical questions. But it speaks of the rise of a conquering king. I think that's the way Sarah described it. A conquering king from the east, and he's controlled by God. I think that's fair to say. Right. Two, So first one on the summons two through four is kind of I guess the evidence that is almost asking a rhetorical question, Hey, who did this? And it's me, right, I'm the one who to God is the one who done it. Verse five to seven the response to the nations. Right, the response of the nations very good. So verse one is the summons. Two through four is basically God, I get how did you say it? I say, I think presenting the evidence basically cool questions and proof. And then five through seven is their response their response. All right. So there is the immediate context, and there's the structural breakdown.

19:39 I mean, this section doesn't require a lot of work. It doesn't work require a lot of work. So now let's kind of break it down. Let's look at the first one, the Isaiah forty one. Verse one. We'll call it the Divine courtroom summons or the summons. All right, I'll read it from a different translation. Now listen to me in silence. So right there, I mean, if we want to start breaking this down, keep silent, or listen to me in silence. Hey, you're being called, but what are you not being called to do? Yeah? Or the nations are being called. Hey you're come, but just be quiet, right because I don't really care what you have to say. You're going to listen to what I have to say, right so, listen to me in silence. Clearly identifies who he's calling. OH Coastlands, according to some translations, or OH Islands.

20:29 Let the people renew their strength, let them approach, let them then then let them speak, which is interesting. Let us together draw near for judgment. They're being drawn near for what to judgment. There's going to be a judgment here. Something's going to be challenged here right now. So in this section, this divine court room, we have the call to the nations, which we've already discussed. Listen to me in silence. It's a legal summons. God calls the nations to a courtroom setting for judgment. OH Coastlands or OH Islands typically represents distant lands, emphasizing the global scope of God's authority. How does it demonstrate his authority? He can call everyone to court, not just Israel. He can call any nation to court because he is God. He's the supreme ruler, he's the supreme judge. Does that make sense?

21:28 Let the people renew their strength? It kind of echoes Isaiah forty thirty one, doesn't it? If you look at Isaiah forty thirty one, and now here it's is it kind of similar, but it's kind of done in an ironic way. Right, there we go. That's what I was getting ready to say, and Isaiah forty thirty one, that's for Israel, now here is for the nation. Here's for the nations. Okay, but how how do you think is being you? It's being you somewhat ironically. But how is it being used in forty one verse one that we're still in verse one kind of like gather your strength, prepare yourself. Yeah, like hey, now get there, Hey wait on the Lord, and God's going to renew your strength. Here, Hey, renew your own strength, strengthen up. It's kind of pull yourself together because as a time of judgment, right that it's being used in kind of a it's a separate audience.

22:39 It's kind of being used in the ironic way. So there's the call to the nations in verse one. All right, then we have kind of the we have Then we have a judgment and kind of a challenge. Let them approach or let us draw near for judgment. Everybody see that phrase. The nations must defend their belief in idols before God. Right, so, hey, strengthen yourself, prepare yourself, come near for judgment. And the judgment is they're going to have to defend themselves, right, They're gonna have to provide some answer. It seems that, really, what is the issue you think this judgment's going to deal with? According to artificial intelligence, the issue at hand is basically who controls history?

23:29 Me are idols? Who controls history? I don't know if we want to say who controls history? Now, there may be a reason AI went with that direction. I'm just gonna say, who's in control me? Really, you could kind of do it three ways. I think you could do it three ways. Who's in control? The True God? Huh way some human ruler or human king or you're idols. Do you think that's fair to go that direction? I think it's fair right who's in charge? Because on one hand, the people could look and they could think who is in charge Babylon or this king that's conquering everyone coming from the east right, or they could perceive their idols to be in charge. So your choices are the true God, human rulers are idols. Let's everyone come, everyone, come, come to the courtroom. Get ready, Strengthen yourself, prepare yourself for a time of judgment. Here who this is your option today in court, ladies and gentlemen, we have to determine who is in charge of everything? Jahweh human rulers are idols. Yeah, yeah, one hundred years before it even happened. That question of

25:01 who's in charge goes through really the entire Bible, right, goes through the entire Bible. Right, because if you think about it, why is the question of who's control? It always haunts human beings that has throughout history? Right, because we look at life and who do we want to be in charge of it? Us? Right? We want to be in charge? But what have humans known from the very beginning? There's some things we're not in charge of. Right, You can go back to the earliest stages of men. Right, it doesn't matter who we are. You begin to realize, Wait, there's storms, there's plagues, there's this, there's that, and what happens whenever we human beings are faced with things that are out of their control, Well, they assign something, They try to assign some cause for what is occurring. Right, So in some cases, hey, we can't control it, but we want to still try to control it by understanding it right, because if we can assign who's responsible for it, if it still is a way for us to maintain some kind of control, correct, so bad things happen that would assign it to what some kind of God, right, and then that God needed to be appeased, and it would be appeased by what what we can do, which, in a roundabout way psychologically, what are we attempting to

26:31 do trying to demonstrate that we're in control? Right? If I take my baby and throw it in the river, and then God will make my crupts grow and reality? Am I saying God is in control? Kind of saying I'm in control right because I can do something. I can do something to appease that God. Humans are always looking for a way not only to understand what we can't control, but to create some system of control that typically we are a part of. We want that control, we want control, right, and for many Christians, if we can't understand it, the same thing happens. I mean, if you go back I'll use the Salem witch trials. If you go back to the Salem witch trials, there were a lot of things that were occurring before Salem happened, right, before Salem happened in that area, there was a war with the native tribes there. A whole lot of people got slaughtered and wiped out. I can't I have the numbers.

27:31 I don't have them right here in front of me. I have to look them up. But a large number. There was also dang I don't know if it was polio, I can't remember which disease went through the area, wiped out all kinds of people. Right, So there was war, there was disease. Well guess what. And the Puritan mind what was going on? Satan? Right, because for them, New England was God's chosen land. There were God's chows and people in New England was under demonic attack. Bad things saw that Satan was working. Oh no, he's out to get us, okay, which then leads to the paranoia on the panic. But it was still about trying to understand.

28:13 We don't like not being in control. We want control in some way, shape or form. We may and some people will say the reason humans created a god is to try to offer some sense of understanding and control to that which we cannot understand or that which we can control. And there is a little truth to that because We definitely do that, and we see that throughout human history. Right. That's why almost every culture, when we dig in the ground and discover a new culture, what do we almost always discover with that culture some form of religious understanding, some deity, some idol, and for the Babylonians that had idols, that was supposedly controlled what everything? Everything?

28:59 All right? So now here is God calling them in to court and he basically wants to say who is in control me? But you have three options. The true God, human kings are what are idols? And that's what is getting ready to be. That's the court case. Does everyone understand the court case? All right? Okay? So unlike human courts, God is both the judge and the prosecutor, exposing the nation's reliance on false gods, or you could possibly say he's going to try to expose them maybe their reliance on human authority. So what do we have here this first section?

29:47 This is the divine courtroom or the summons. We have the call to the nations, and we have the judgment and the challenge. Everybody feel comfortable with that section? That basically is all verse one? He got that, so let's read it again. Keep silence before me. Oh, Ireland, So you're being called to court. But what does he want you to do? You need to be quiet at this point, right or not us? But them? Right? Let the people renew their strength. It's kind of ironic, right strength. Come on, get yourself together, let them come near, let them speak, let us come near together to judgment. So keep silent, but there's going to be a time for them to speak. Basically, I think I think it's being I know it seems contradictory.

30:34 What do you think it means by keep silent but then let them speak? What do you think is happening? It does seem kind of contradictory. I don't think. Maybe it's a contradictory as that appears. Okay, right, who he's gonna say when you can speak? And when is he wants them to speak? When he starts asking these requestions he started the first question shows up where verse two? Right, So show up not speaking, and when I ask you to speak, speak? All right. He's demonstrating his own his power over the situation, his authority over the situation. All right, there's the call to the nations, there's the judgment and challenge.

31:15 Now what do we have in verses two through three, Can we have the questions? Or we can call this the rise of the conqueror the rise of the king. Right, and then I'm going to read it from a different translation again, Who stirred up one from the east whom Victory meets At every step he gives up nations before him, so that he tramples the kings underfoot. He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. He pursued them and passes on safely by paths his feet have not trod. Right, So let's break this section down verses two through three. We'll call this the rise of the conqueror we can call it questions and proves, however you want to define it, as long as we get the basic idea, I'm not so dogmatic on you want to label it in your notes. I'm giving you the freedom to kind of shape it the way you want, as long as we capture what's here. Right. So I'm gonna say we're gonna break this section down into two major parts here, right, Okay, are you ready? Here we go?

32:20 Maybe if I don't lose my notes here first, what's probably the if we kind of ask a question of ourselves. Probably what's the first question we need to ask Verses two through three. If we're asking ourselves a question, probably who is the one from the east, right, that's probably the obvious question. Right. Anybody has study Bibles. If you have a study Bible, just tell me if they say anything. Here my study Bible that I'm using, and I have the foundation study Bible, I can tell you how it answers the question. If you have a study Bible on you, you can tell me how it answers the question. All right, says Cyrus. Mine says Cyrus. Okay, I think most study bibles are going to say Cyrus. Mine says. This is what mine says. This refers to Cyrus, King of Persia five point fifty nine, five point thirty BC. Right, so it identifies Cyrus. Now, what is fascinating is almost everything you can see says Cyrus. But for some weird reason, preachers will go all kinds of wacky directions. Here in fact, AI at the end of this breaks down like fifteen hermeneutical errors pastors make. And I'm like, my goodness, how can you make a mistake here? I don't know, But most scholars agree. Now, even Ai says most. Why do we always have to say most when we deal with the Bible or theology? Because there's never going to be

33:52 unanimous agreement on anything? All right, Okay, there's never going to be a unanimous agreement, all right. Most scholars agree that this refers to Cyrus, the great king of Persia, whom God would use to defeat Babylon and free Israel. Now, I'm gonna give you three references. I'm gonna give you the reference from the study Bible, and i'm gonna give you two crush references given to me by Ai. You ready, all right? So go to Isaiah forty four to twenty eight Isaiah forty four twenty eight? What do you find in Isaiah forty four twenty eight? Okay, thatsaiath of Cyrus.

34:35 He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shall be built into the temple, that foundation shall be laid. What is significant in Isaiah forty four? What is Isaiah forty four twenty eight tell us about Cyrus? Well, let's break it down. Number one, he is named everybody got that. Number two, he is my shepherd. He is God's shepherd. Do not forget this. He is identified by name. He is god Shepherd. What's the third thing? He shall perform all of God's pleasure.

35:20 Everybody see that, and specifically rebuilding Jerusalem? All right? How about forty five one to his anointed Cyrus is referred to God's anointed when we speak of the anointed one. What is that typically reference when we say the anointed one Christ? Christ is the anointed one, the anointed one, almost like a Messiah? Correct, yes, okay, very very similar.

36:00 All right? What else do we see him? Forty five to one whose right hand I have holden? He is he? God is holding his hand to do what to subdue nations? Before him? I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two left gates, and the gates shall not be shut. He's basically going to have He's going to work in such a way that the kings are going to do what open the gates. But just note how Cyrus is described the Study Bible. If I go back to forty one the Study Bible here, oh, it gives me forty six eleven. Look at forty six eleven. Ay, I did not give me forty six eleven. What happens in forty six eleven? I don't think I've looked at this one.

36:54 What does it say? Who is that Cyrus? Is this ravenous bird from the east? All right, so he's identified multiple times? All right, I cannot stress this out. Look, we're going to get into some very questionable Okay when we start talking about Cyrus. This is where things get really and this is what makes Christians nervous. But I started My entire introduction was that when people study the Bible, they are not motivated by the pursuit of what truth. That's my entire introduction. Now, when we see, so Cyrus is referenced here in Isaiah forty one, he's at least alluded to. Can we in fact, we've already established I believe he's been talked about way before this passage in forty one, right, I think he's all over this section. Now, if Cyrus is all over this section, all over, then you know where this is going to lead to a possible historical and philological debate.

38:04 What's the most famous chapter in Isaiah forty through fifty five? What's the most famous chapter in Isaiah forty through fifty five. Come on the most famous chapter fifty three. Why is fifty three the most famous chapter the Man of Sorrow? It describes this person right now, you could see why some Jewish scholars will try to identify that as everyone other than whom. Yeah, Jewish scholars are, they're gonna try to identify this with any with anyone else other than Christ, right because unless they're a Messianic Jew, they're gonna reject Christ being the fulfillment of Isaiah forty three. All right, Well, in a section where who is clearly the main person mentioned over and over and over Cyrus, you can see where that can possibly lead to. Right now, we have to at least be ready and willing to deal with that when we get there. Okay, but we cannot deny what Cirrus is all over. This Cirrus is all over that.

39:13 If we deny that, then we are not pursuing truth, no matter how uncomfortable that may be, all right, So we have to just be prepared for that. Okay, Oh yeah, Well, we definitely have New Testament references that are going to turn it to ust. But at the same time we also in the New test Remember the New Testament uses passages in very unique ways, right, and the New Testament it uses Isaiah forty versus three through five voice in the wilderness doing all and remember were like, wait a minute, and maybe in the historical context, that's definitely not pointing to John the Baptist, right, So maybe it has two concepts. Right, we'll get into that. I just want to make sure we just don't we don't go as we move through Isaiah forty. Don't forget Sirrul. Remember I said that from the very beginning of this study, write down his name. Well, now we have him right here. So who is the one from the east. It is Cyrus, right now, I asked Ai. Though not everyone believes it's Cyrus. And AI was like, well, right, because some see this as a typological reference to Christ. All right, I don't know how you can go there. Let me make it very clear, there is no typology here. This is not about Christ here, this is about Cyrus. This is about Cyrus probably probably right, right,

40:52 But I mean in the context, I mean Abraham's long gone. Yeah yeah, yeah, but so but some people love to go to these passages and then say, ooh, this is the righteous Man, okay, and then they're going to try to draw this typology of Christ and this represents this, and people love that kind of preaching because oh, I've never seen this. Well, the reason you've never seen it is right because it's not there. Okay, it's not there. So everything points to Cyrus. Go ahead now that I mean, I have a good well, it does, Isaiah, it does, Okay, all right, So I will say I don't have a definitive term or reason why. I think maybe it's referring to him as righteous because and this is just speculation.

41:50 You just put me on the spot. So I'm just trying to answer on the spot. Because he's going to do exactly what God tells him to do. Therefore, his acts will be righteous because God is the one directing them. Because it's it's emphasized over and over and over. He's going to do what my will, He's going to do my pleasure, He's going to do whatever I tell him to do. So therefore, when you see him doing these things, it's me. So in a sense, I think that's the best answer I can give you. I don't think has a soulteriological understanding of righteous. I think it's more of a general what he's doing is what I'm telling him to do. So it's being given by me.

42:34 Okay, it's true calling righteous? Oh okay, righteous? Right, I said God is calling him, his calling of him is righteous. Okay, that's interesting. That's interesting. So good catch there, Stephen. Good So who is the one from these? The main thing we need to understand is that it is whom cyrus? All right? So we got that, So we're kind of breaking. We're trying to do basically and exegetical analysis all of this. So we have the Divine Courtroom summons in forty one that's broken down into the call of the Nations and judgment and challenge.

43:15 Then we have the Rise of the Conqueror two through three. We have this broken down basically into two parts. Who is the one from the East. We've identified that, and then we have the language of conquest? Do we not have the language of conquests? And verses two through three? We have the one from the East identified, or at least we identified him. And what do we have Victory meets at every step. This leader will be unstoppable, divinely empowered tramples kings, makes them like dust. The nations are powerless before him, like driven stubble a metaphor for weakness and destruction. This is not about This is a key insight.

43:59 This is not about how powerful a ruler Cyrus is. It is about God's control over world events. Cyrus is merely a tool in God's hands. But what is this being used for in the courtroom? Hey, don't look to human authority. I'm in charge of that authority. So remember the options. Who's in control God? Human rulers are idols. This is the human ruler section, and so people in fact, it's almost spoken of like they're gonna know who this person is coming from the east, right, it's spoken of. In fact, it doesn't it use like a very definitive who raised up the righteous man from the east. It's spoken of, not a one but the one, right, like there's a specific one he's referencing, and it's spoken of as at least the people at this time are gonna know who it is. Right now, this works even though this is for the other nations. This really works even for How does this bring comfort to those in Babylonian captivity? Well, once again, they've already been brought into captivity by Babylon, right, so they've seen human rulers, destroy their temple, bring them into captivity. Now again that don't have a minute by minute update, but at this point they're gonna know of another ruler coming and conquering. They probably have heard the conquest of Cyrus and him coming, so those in captivity

45:29 would be possibly what frightened or scared that, Oh boy, here we go again. We're gonna now be caught. We're just think if you are the slaves of a nation that's conquered you, and that nation gets conquered, the nation that may conquer you may view you as completely what disposable, like we were already conquering the nation. We don't need their slaves, right, We've we've been conquering nations for no matter. How do we need more slaves? Like we could be completely wiped out. So they can be fearful. What in this case, what are they going to take from it? Who's in charge of it? God? Well, if God's in charge, that could be good, right, because if he's coming to conquer and he's on God is using him and we're God's covenant people, this could be good. Right. So it's supposed to bring comfort there for the people of all the nations. What does he want them to understand? You're seeing a conquering king. What you need to see is not the conquering king. You need to see the conquering God.

46:34 Your gods are useless because I am the true God. So that's that's how the court case is being played out. It's being played out like literally systematically. Right, he is demonstrating that. So look at verse four, right, So what have we demonstrated here? We've seen the courtroom summons. We broke that down into the call of nations, judgment and challenge. We looked at the right of a conqueror. We've broken that down into two parts. Who is the one from the east the language of conquest? Now in verse four we're going to see the sovereign Lord basically over history, over everything here, all right, So I'm gonna read it from the ESV. Who has performed and done done this?

47:19 Calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am key. And what is the basic question here that's being asked? Who controls history? It's really just kind of doubling down, right, because it says who has performed and done this? What this is being referred to there the conquering king, and then it says, calling the generations from the beginning. Everybody see that? So who has performed and done this? The nations must recognize that it is God who's raising up this ruler and calling the nations from the beginning. History is not random. God orchestrates the rise and fall of nations. How does the NIV translate calling the generations? And verse four calling forth the generations? So basically it's saying, who's in charge of everything that has happened since the beginning? God? God is in charge of everything. God is in charge of everything?

48:24 Does that make sense? Yes? So who controls history? God? Now that that is the that you see where that has caused so many problems in history? Right, It's caused problems in history because if God is in charge of all history, that raises millions of questions, does it not? That's very like and in some ways that's supposed to bring comfort. It also can be maddening. So let's just think about this. We as and I should have probably worked on this a little further, but I was trying to finish this section. But we'll do our best. Just think about this. The truth is God is in charge of all of history. That's that's the philological truth. God is in charge of all of history. What problems does that truth lead people to? God is in charge of all history? What problems does that leave us? Okay, well yeah, and the immediate thing is, wait a minute, if God's in charge of all history, I can think of some serious historical things that if he's in charge of that's some pretty messed up stuff, right, I mean we can go on and on and on from the Holocaust to this to this to this to this to the and it leaves us with we don't have any good way of answering it, right, other than just saying, well, God can do what he wants. That sounds really good sitting

49:55 in church until it's you know, your child being murdered and then all of a sudden God can do what he wants. Doesn't really ring? So so this many children have been sexually molested inside churches since say the nineteen sixties. Those numbers are staggering. Well, if God is in charge, he couldn't protect children inside churches. That's disturbing stuff. Right, Let's not be Let's not pretend that that doesn't that causes problems. What is another theological thing that it causes? Because Christians have to handle this, right, Christians have Christians are not good at being confronted with that. If the room was full, and I'm like, God is in charge of history, but this and what about this? And what about this? Christians get very defensive when I say those things. Right.

50:44 We've even seen it happen in this room where people get very defensive when I say that, they get mad, right, And I can already see him back there looking at a scripture and getting all ticked off at me, And it's like, calm down, it's just a fact. If God is in charge of history, we should all struggle with this. But it leads to this kind of thinking. Right, well, wait a minute. That must mean if bad things happen, then why do they happen? What does a common go to amongst Christians? Now they got to they're already of acknowledging God a sovereign right, So now if bad things happen, why are they happening? Ah, there we go. We must be doing something bad. We must be doing something bad, which is the entire reason the Book of Job exists because bad things happen. Was it because Job had done anything bad. Absolutely not right. I mean the book of Job opens with going above and beyond, trying to make Job sound basically to be what basically sinless, almost is what it sounds like. Has it not look at the beginning of so immediately then that's to try to protect that, because that's what everyone goes to. Right if a hurricane happens, Well, there's gay people there. That's the reason why they had a pride march. That's the reason it happened. Well why

52:17 did that that happened? On the Christian Post, there was a shooting at a Christian school. The comments under the Christian Post were, well, that school must be doing something wrong. There must be something ungodly going on. And that's what in the world. Christians cannot cut. They can't wrap in their brain that God would let bad things happen and it's not some kind of divine punishment. Right, go back to Salem, all of those things that happened, the massacre that was happening because of the war with the Native tribes, and the New England area and the Massachusetts area, and the I think it's it was a polio. I can't remember which disease but whichever disease that like something bad as hell? What bad is happening? Which is God is mad at us? Okay? So because you always have to identify a cause, And that's another attempt of us trying to be what in control? See, even though when we say God is in charge, we still operate within that system and ways in which we want to control. What do we want to control? We got to control the the reason why these things are happening. We need an answer?

53:33 Does God give an answer? Well? Well, and and Israel's case, there is an answer. They know the reason things have happened to them because they've done something wrong. It's specific in their case. But then when we go to the Book of Job, is there ever an answer? No, That's why we have That's why the Book of Job is so foundational philologically, because it demonstrates bad things can happen and nobody did anything wrong. All right, So saying God is in control is great? Do not negate all the problems that flows from it? All right? Does that make sense?

54:21 So verse four, we're showing the sovereignty of God over basically everything. The central question is who controls history? It is God? And then what happens in the next part we have in verse four. We're breaking verse four down into two parts. So who controls history? God and the divine self declaration. He kind of declares, what how does he describe himself? In verse four? I the Lord have Lord, right, all caps? I think in your bibles? Right, all right, the first and with the last, I am. This echoes a number of passages like I am the Alpha and the omega, the the idea of Lord, the self existing one, Jahweh Jehovah, depending on how you know, get into that whole debate. Right, he is the eternal and sovereign over time itself. I am the first and the last. I'm the beginning. In the end, I am self. I'm eternal, I'm the self existent existing one. Right. History is not determined by human power idols. God alone rules the course of history. God is in charge. That's the point here.

55:31 God is in charge. He brings everything. All right, So we have Oh, we're out all We're going to be out of town. We've got to finish this up, all right. We have the summons. We broke that down to the call of nations, judgment and challenge. We have the Rise of the conqueror. Who is the one from the east. We identify him Cyrus, the language of conquest. We got that. We have Isaiah forty one to four, the sovereign lord over history, who controls history God. We have the divine declaration, I am the beginning, the end, the first to last, I'm the eternal win. Then we have five to seven, and five to seven basically is the nation's response to all of this, And how do the nations respond to all of this fear and idolatry. That's really their two part things. Right, the coastlands have seen and are afraid the ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near and come all right, The nations fear for the rise of the leader afraid tremble. The rise of Cyrus is unsettling to the nations. But instead of turning to God, they turn to white idols. Do what fashioning? Yeah, and they start building more. That's a good Oh that I like that. That's true. Good point. That's a very good point.

56:46 That don't just turn to idols, they build more idols. Yeah, they already have idols, but now a new threat causes them to build new idols. I like that. That's a good distinction, right, so we they make new idols, and they make new idols because well, if this one's coming from the east, and our old idols we had new problems. We are our old idols didn't stop this problem, so we need new idols. Yeah, I think that's very important to determine, all right, And then we have that fray that section. Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, be strong. The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with a hammer with him who strikes the anvil.

57:28 And then it is good, and they strengthen it with new so that it cannot be moved. And so what is it try to demonstrate here the futility of ied idolatry. The nations frantically strengthen their idols, thinking they can provide security. They must nail the idol down so it doesn't moot fall over. God raises up and controls nations. Idols can't even stand on their own. That's the point here, all right. God is raising up and controlling everything, and their idols can't stand up on their own. Right. The nation's response to fear is self reliants, but Israel is called to do what that's the contrast Isaiah forty, verse thirty one. What is Israel called to do? They that weighed upon, renew their strength, mount up with the wings of eagles, right walking up, grow weary, all of that type of thing. Right.

58:20 The contrast here is Israel trust in me. The nations when they're confronted with this king from the east, they turn to fear and idolatry. But ultimately they're turning to fear and idolatry. Is that is really a turn to self reliance? And that's what we're always confronted with. Right do we trust in God? Or do we trust in self? And what do we all tend to do? We all trust in self. Even sometimes when we say we're trusting in God, we still want to control it. We still want to understand it. Right. So Isaiah forty one one through seven establishes God's sovereignty over history, demonstrating that nations rise and fall at his command. The nation's fear and turn to idols, but Israel is called to trust in the eternal, unshakable God. We had to go through that way too fast, but that's okay. Just to kind of break it down the way we broke it down. We said, Isaiah forty one to one is the divine courtroom summons.

59:24 We broke that down into two parts, the call to the nation's judgment and challenge. Then we had verses two through three the rise of a conqueror. We broke it down into two parts, the one who comes from the east, the language of conquest. Then we had verse four, the sovereign Lord over history. We talked about who controls history, the divine self declaration. Then we had five through seven the nation's response, which was fear and idolatry. Right, I have philological themes here, but we don't have time to get into it. We kind of looked at the conclusion and then I have one, two, I have about ten, may even go up to fifteen common exegetical and hermeneutical errors pastors make on the section that we just read.

1:00:08 I'm not going to go through all fifteen of those. But once again, that's ridiculous that there could be that many mistakes made in Isaiah forty one to one through seven, because that may be the simplest passage you've ever studied in your life, is it not. It's pretty straightforward, there's nothing complicated now the only thing you may have struggled with is identifying who the one is from the east. But with all the resources we have, we can do that in five seconds. Maybe there was a time in history people would have struggled with that. We can identify that just like that. Everything else there there's no problem. Why there is there fifteen common hermeneutical errors made because people are not studying the text to pursue truth. They're studying the text to produce sermons. And the people in the pew don't want the truth of the text. They want to basically learn something that will make them feel good good for the rest of the week. And so the pastors have to write these ridiculous sermons that have nothing to do with the truth of the text. And they have to write those ridiculous sermons to keep the people in the pew happy so that they'll keep giving money so that the building can operate. And that's how that's the cycle that it always falls in. But we finish that section, and then in the next hour we'll try to finish the next. All right, let's pray, Lord God, we come before you, Lord, forgive us for our mishandling of the text. May we always pursue the study of history, and the study of scripture, and the study of theology

1:01:39 because we desire truth, not because we desire to be in control. We asked this in Jesus name, and God's people said