Observational Outline: Isaiah 41

0:01 Isaiah chapter forty one. First hour was all about transitioning between chapter forty to forty one. Now it's Isaiah forty one, and we're going to begin our study of this entire chapter. I'm not going to go back through. I'm not even going to do really a review. We spent the entire time working on how forty and forty one are connected, how they're different, all the similarities. Now, because we have chapter forty one in front of us and it's twenty nine versus, I have two options. We can just jump in and start breaking it down section by section or just walking through it. But we're going to do an observational outline. So this morning, the first this second hour is all about doing an observational outline of Isaiah forty one.

0:42 Why do we do an observational outline? Let's start there. Why do we do observational outlines? Because you cannot interpret what you do not see. The quality of your interpretation is dependent upon the quality of your observation. What is the goal of an observational outline? Not too interpret, not too interpret. It's to see see see see. The more we see, the better prediction. And another thing we're doing observational outline. If I can show you what's in a chapter over and over and over and over and over. From that point on, the goal is that if you ever hear anyone else say something about a chapter, you should immediately be able to go, wait, I know that chapter because I've looked at it now a thousand times. Right.

1:31 It's kind of the idea, how do you what's the best way to learn how to detect counterfeit money? Study the ruin. That's always the idea. The more you know the real, then within seconds you can learn the counterfeit. If you spend all your time studying counterfeits, you don't get anywhere. You got to know the real. So if you know what's really in forty one, then then we can avoid all the sermons that well, don't get me started on all the problems with sermons in Isaiah forty to fifty five. I've been talking about it now since October of last year. Right here we go. Isaiah forty one is structured almost like at least in parts, as a divine courtroom scene where God demonstrates his sovereignty over history and exposes the futility of idols and reassures Israel of his covenant care. So in part just if we're going to try to look at it, it's kind of structured somewhat like a courtroom. Right. God's going to demonstrate the following things, his sovereignty over what history. He's going to expose the futility of what idols, and he's going to reassure Israel of what his covenantal care. Israel about his covenantal care. The chapter transitions from a broad global perspective God's control over all nations to very specific personal promises to Israel. God over everything specifically to Israel. It's

3:07 gonna move that direction, just like forty to forty one does. All right, So here we go. Look at chapter forty one, look at verses one through seven. Forty one one through seven, look at it. We'll gohead and read it together. I like you, I typically don't lie, but I know people online sometimes gripe at me. You don't. You don't when you're in church, you don't have you don't actually read it. You just tell the people in the congregation to look at it. Because if I read it, people, that's passive listening. If you're sitting there looking at it and you're reading it. What is that? That's your active You're engaged right now. You either you can sit there and just look at me and not participate. But if I don't do anything, at some point it becomes uncomfortable. Say you have to do something right forty one. Let's look at verses one through seven. Keep silence before me, oh islands, 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, made his rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to his sword, and has driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who has wrought and done it? Calling the generations from the beginning, I the lord, the first, and with the last I am He The isles saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped. Everyone of

4:39 his neighbor bore, and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and that and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldering, and he fastened it with knells that it should not be moved. Right, It's a very wordy section. A lot going on here. What should we possibly call this section forty one to one through seven? I am not even going to force you to try to figure it out because I didn't have a good idea either, because I'm like, what do I do with this? Right? I mean, like, sometimes you can read a section and immediately go, oh, that's simple. This one, I'm kind of like, do I Yeah, I definitely use AI here. I was like, what do I do here? Like, because I argued in how to break this up? Right? Do I do forty one? Because two, three, and four seems to kind of go together? Then five, six, seven, And I'm like, oh, well, does your Bibles breaking things into like sections? Oh? Okay, okay, so it separates four and five, all right? My Bible takes forty one and goes one through seven and then the next section begins verse eight, right,

6:10 So okay, I think most do so. So Most breaks down forty one one through seven as a section. AI does the same thing. Ai says, we shall refer to this section as the Lord's sovereignty over nations. Okay, all right, I'm not gonna argue with that. That's fine, all right, Isaiah forty one through seven. Right, So now it's gonna break down one through seven into three parts. So Ai takes Isaiah forty one one through seven and calls it the Lord's Sovereignty over nations and then separate rates it into three separate parts. The first part is verse one forty one one. What do you see going on in forty one one? Keep silence before me, oh, islands, Let the people renew their strength, Let them come near, then, let them speak, Let us come near together to judgment. Okay, a wooing? Okay, an invitation? Assom see it as an invitation.

7:27 That's interesting, Okay, maybe it's kind Maybe do you see an invitation positive or negative? Well? Well, Ai says it this way. This is God calling the nations to court. It's a summons. It's more of a summons. Okay, it's a summons. That's my word. He A. I didn't say summons. I'm saying summons. That's the way I feel that it is. It's like when I get a jury summons, I get those all the time, right whatever, Or you get a summons, do you have to appear in court? Right? It's it's calling everyone to court, and it says, keep silent. Whom okay O islands? How does the NIV translates O islands?

8:11 You islands? Okay? But it's it's kind of a broad scope, right right, This is how Ai translates it. Listen to me and silence, Oh coast lands. Let the people renew their strength. Right. Ai translates it this way or breaks it down this way. God summons the nation's coast lands equals distant lands to a legal dispute to prove his power. Guys, come here, come to me. We're gonna talk, right, all of you come here because I'm gonna demonstrate something. I'm going to prove something. Remember forty was all this generic like philological truth. Now it's gonna get very specific. Right now, it's gonna get very specific. So he's calling them to prove his power in a sense. Uh. Basically, Ai says, the challenge here is basically who controls history, who directs the rise and fall of rulers? So it's a it's a summons to appear God is calling the nations to court.

9:16 Verse one. That's what basically how it went. Now, I know I'm having to do a little bit of interpretation there because it is kind of hard to pick up, right. I mean, I'm gonna be honest. I mean, that's like when you read Isaiah anyone who's ever read the book, sometimes you're like, what is going on here? Right? So read that verse again and see if it makes a little bit more sense. I don't, I know, I don't want to read too much into it. It's hard doing an observational outline here. We're just gonna be honest. Some of this is gonna be hard. But keep silence before me? Right that see? You see that's not so uh, that's pretty abrupt and direct. That's somewhat aggressive. What is that saying? Everyone be quiet? Sh How does the NIV put it be silent? Keep silent, be quiet? And who is he telling to be quiet? All islands or now there we have to do a little interpretive work. But it's the coastlands or it's all distant nations. He's telling everyone be quiet.

10:18 And now this particular party is not speaking directly towards Israel's talking basically to everyone else. Right, let the people renew their strength. How does the NIV have it? Well, let the nations renew their strength? Interesting, okay, all right, but he's not saying does he's not. This is not directed towards Israel? Right, so all right, and then what does he say? Let us come near together to what to speak? And IV says to judgment. The King James says, to judgment. I don't know if we have any other translations. Okay, Jesus, oh at the place a judgment? Okay, good, okay, it does have it there? All right. How so in other words, you're gonna come, you're gonna talk. But what if there's some judgment that's gonna be made. God's gonna this is to make some kind of judgment. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's not to me. It's a summons. It's very it's very aggressive, it's very like, come here, come on, come, we're gonna talk. Now. It's interesting. Now, let's just stop here, let's stop here, let's think this through. Now. I know this must be observational outline. I'm okay. If we do a little bit of extra work here, that's okay. So in our context, does it seem odd at this point that this is words of comfort to Israel. He's been

11:49 teaching them philological lessons about himself, and then all of a sudden, in forty one, all nations appear in court to the place a judgment that seems odd? Does it not? Now I'm just gonna throw out of this is just my own hypothesis. I don't, I'm not. I don't have anything from Ai. This is just me doing my what I love to do with create a hypothetical and then we test it. Right. It's almost as when God talks about how great and wonderful and all his power and all this stuff that almost immediately someone could be like, what, well, if you're so great and you're so incomparable, Israel's a joke.

12:36 They're garbage, they're trash, they're defeated, they're captive, and He's like, oh well, then let's talk about it. Come on, we're gonna talk about it. That That seems that's how I'm reading. And I could be wrong, right because I can. Again, I can. I can take anything and create a story or a narrative, right. I love storytelling, right, so I can. But that's kind of what it feels like, is it not. Let's see if I'm right or I'm wrong, or what happens in two through four? What happens in two through four? So this the section is one through seven. We're calling this God sovereignty of the Lord, sovereignty over nations. The first part of that is verse one, and we're gonna call that God calls the nations to court. What happens in verses two through four. I'll read them again? Who raised up the righteous Man? Now? When he says, who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, made him rule over kings, there's the question mark after kings and the king James. It takes a while before it because that puts all of those questions together. So all of a sudden they're called into court, and what immediately happens.

13:52 He starts rattling off questions to them. Boom boom, boom boom, rapid questions. Correct, All right, do we agree that that's what's happening? And then it kind of becomes very then much more making dogmatic statements. He gave them as the dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow, he pursued them, passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it? Calling degenerations from the beginning? Then he goes back to the questions, so he immediately starts interrogating them or asking them questions, and those questions center around what the rise of I'm gonna I know this will sounding maybe a little too interpretive, the rise of what appears a conquering leader. Is everyone okay with that? The rise of a conquering leader. I'm not going to give the name of the conquering leader in the observational outline, but it's the rise of a conquering leader. Do you agree he sounds conquering? Do you think that's fair? Do you think I'm reading too much into it? Okay, I don't want to. Right, So, the first section was God calls the nations to court. Now this is the rise of a conquering leader Verses two through four. Who stirred up one from the east, whom victory meets at every step?

15:10 That's how then, are the AI translates it, who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? Every step is one he's raising up from the east. Victory victory victory, right, one from the east. Now, I'm gonna do a little observational work. Most likely this is whom. This is Cyrus. This is Cyrus, right, just remember that? Okay? All right? And what is it? Why is he? Why is he pointing this out to these to all the nations, all the nations, see what Judah where? And captivity? Seeming like God has lost control of what history are the nations?

15:57 So he's like, oh, guys, guys, who's this person rising up from the east who's conquering everyone. Well, the implication is they're all going to be like, oh, that's Cyrus. And then what is God taking credit for he did it? Meanie, you think I'm not in control, I'm working right there. That's like tangible prier. Now he doesn't and what's interesting he doesn't point to whom as proof. He doesn't point to Judah, he doesn't point to Israel. He's like, oh, because in their mind they would be looking for what, well, God would be equaled with what victory power? Okay, well, I'm not gonna point to Judah because that's not gonna help my case. What will prove my case, Cyrus. Oh we heard about him. Oh yeah, we know that one on the Yeah, he is conquering everyone.

16:54 Oh okay, uh. Huh right God, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all yes. This is all about God. He's trying to demonstrate that, all right, so everybody see that. So what he wants to do is here this rise, the rising or the raising of this conquering leader, proves God's control over history as it raises up the king according to his will. So all the nations come here, be quiet. He's not bringing them into court to hear them. He's bringing them into court for them to hear him. And he starts rattling off these questions. When you start rattling one question after another question after another question, what does that typically indicate?

17:44 What If I'm asking one question after another question a lot of times, that indicates I'm not interested in you answering it, I'm interesting in you hearing my questions. When God starts rattling off questions, that clearly is an indicator of why, Ah, I'm not interested in you answering. I'm interesting did in you listening? Right? Because I'm gonna make a point in these questions? Does that make sense, right, Yeah, like he did with Joe, right, same concepts. So we have God's call to the nations, and verse one we have the rise of a conquering leader. Verses two through four, Now what. Do we have? And verses five through seven. This, yeah, because verse five, what do we have? The ailes saw it? How's the NIV Transferverse five, The islands have seen it. They saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid.

18:46 They drew near and came. They helped everyone his neighbor. Everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpentering courage, the goldsmith, and he that's smooth, and he that smootheth if I can read correct with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldering. And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. All right, So here we go verses five to seven. The nation's response one verse one is the call come to court. Two through four is almost proof the rise of this conquering leader. And in five through seven, the nations respond, the coast lands have seen and are afraid. But what do they do with their fear? Oh? Look at the entire section. What do they tend to do and what what have they seen?

19:48 When it says the islands have seen, what does it appear that they have seen in this context Cyrus? Yeah, there we go, thank you, Yeah, very good. They see the conquering king, and their solution was build some more idols. We need some more gods, because what could they do with those gods? They could do a ceremony. It was the name of that ceremony, Sarah opening the mouth. I can't remember the miss pie. There we go, miss Pie. Yeah, yeah, that miss Pie, the very good Bobby. I completely forgot it by the opening of the mouth, because by opening the mouth, what could they hear? In a sense, they would hear from their God telling them what to do to stop this conquering king that is coming. They'd run to their idolatry. So basically, God is like, hey guy, big quiet, here's my proof that I'm in charge. I'm raising someone from the east. And they're like, oh, what do we do? Boom boom boom, Let's make some more gods.

20:56 Let's make some more gods. And maybe there's a little bit of irony in here, because how does it describe this well, they try to help one his neighbor, right, and they try to help each one have good courage. You see that in verse six, Right, we're gonna help, We're gonna help, all right, So everyone is neighbor and uh yeah, okay verse seven. Now I'm seeing verse six and I'm like, I think I was reading that completely wrong. But they help everyone his neighbor. And everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. Now we understand that. Right, They're trying to help each other out because everyone's scared. So then what do they do? So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldery, and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved. It's a little sarcasm there at the end. Oh, so you see a conquering king, you get scared. It's great that you care about each other. It's great that you do to help your neighbor. Right, it's great about that, But then what happens You have to build something that you've got to hammer down so it won't fall over.

22:11 That it's being sarcastic, it's being very sarcastic. There does that make sense? All right? So in fact, Ai said, they make gods that need to be fastened with nails so they won't topple over right, So all right, So the first section is called what God's sovereignty over nations? Right? Or we could actually say God's call to Court? All right? We could go a lot of different directions here, right. So there's three major sections. First, God's Call the Nations to court? Right, that's verse one. Then we have the rise of a conquering leader two through four, and then we have five through seven the nation's response. The nations are scared to death of the conquering king, and so they build idols to stop it. Do the idol stop Cyrus? No, no, it doesn't. Right now. That brings us to the next section, starting in verse eight. Now, this is where it gets a little difficult, okay, because we're trying to break it down.

23:15 If I follow my Bible, it goes from eight to twenty. Who years went from one to twenty? Ai does not like any other way the Bibles break it down. AI was like, Nope, disagree with all of that, right, Ai said, what you should do is break it down from verse eight to thirteen. Now y'all look at that and tell me if that makes sense. Wolf read verse eight. But thou Israel, arn't my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen the seat of Abraham my friend, Now whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called the the chief men thereof, and said, unto THEE, thou art my servant. I have chosen THEE, and not cast THEE away.

24:08 Fear thou not, for I am with THEE. Be not dismayed. For I am thy God. I will strengthen THEE. YEA, I will help THEE. YEA, I will uphold THEE with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against THEE shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing. They shall strive with THEE. They that strive with THEE shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and shall not find them, even them that contended with THEE. That they that war against THEE shall be as nothing, as a thing of not. Then the very next verse is for I the Lord, thy God, will hold thy right hand. Ai says that we should go to thirteen and stop right there, and then fourteen starts a new section.

25:03 What do you think I do? Okay, maybe kind of a that AI is picking up a shifting tone. That's a that's a good catch. That is a good catch, I know, right, Okay, that's true. I like that better almost going from eight to fourteen frail small yeah, well yeah, so let's say this. We'll go with AI's breakdown here.

26:06 But I am skeptical of this. I am. I am skeptical of this. But at the same time, reading this, where to kind of put the section is kind of very difficult to do. I kind of went with where Sarah was going because I was kind of like, well, I think that next section to me is very different. So I would have gone to eight to fourteen. If it was up to me, I would have gone eight to fourteen. That's where I. Oh, oh, very good. Okay, that's good. Okay, I didn't catch that. I didn't catch that at first. Okay, right, all right, So this is what this is, how AI calls it, or what it calls it. It says, so the first section was the Lord's Sovereignty of our Nations one through seven, eight through thirteen. This is what AI refers to. It asks God's assurance to Israel, God's assurance to Israel. Now, looking at eight through thirteen, let's just go ahead and we're gonna challenge it. Can we clearly demonstrate the assurances going to Israel? And eight through thirteen?

27:16 Is there any question? No question? Right? Because Israel is literally named are they not? Okay? All right, So that's not an interpretation, that's an observation. All right, all right, good now, all right, here we go. It breaks eight through thirteen down into three sections. It loves, if I've noticed one thing about AI's outlining, it loves to create a major section and then break down the major sections into three separate parts. It loves that way of outlining. So if you ever have student ever turns an outline and it does that, it's probably a because AI. I mean, almost every every outline I've seen AI do it does that. Make a section and break it down into three parts, three parts, three individual parts. It seems to be I'm not saying it's one hundred percent, but I use it a lot to check outlining, and I'll be like, whoa, there it goes again, There it goes again.

28:13 It's almost like, yeah, it's you can pick that up that's an AI outline, all right. Now people may do the same thing, and it may be great to do it this way, but and just ever remember if you ever ask Ai to do an outline or help you with an outlining of anything in the Bible, you have to ask it to do an observational outline. You have to be specific or it's going to be pulling outlining like you'll get in commentaries and other things that will be more interpretive. So if you want it to do an outline for you, ask it to do an observational one, right, be specific on the kind of outline you want. An observational is different than an interpretive one.

28:55 Right. Does that make sense? Okay, so just keep that in mind, all right. So the first section, they say, our Ai says, goes from verses eight through nine. What do we have going on in eight through nine? Oh? There we go. Okay. So AI calls this Israel's identity as God's chosen servant. So this whole section is God's assurance to Israel. The first section sub section is Israel's identity is God's chosen servant. All right, everybody see that? All right? Now, this is how it breaks this down or talks about this section.

29:40 It gives me a quote, and again sometimes it's using a different translation than King James. I could ask it to use the King James, but I let it quote whatever it wants to quote. But you Israle, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen. But you Israel, my servant Jacob. How does the NIV go read it? All? Right? He gives those exact words, okay, the King James Sarah. Okay, So there's no question who it's referencing, right, I mean, it's making it abundantly clear. Right. So there's a contrast the nation's fear right, we see that in verse five. Remember the nations are fearful, but Israel is securing God's choosing verse nine. Right, Hey, Israel, I've got you. Now, why do you think it goes from now? Just ask yourself this question. We have the rise of the conquering leader.

30:35 In that first section. We have a court case going on. We have a court trial going on. God is upset with these nations, and he's asking them these questions. All of a sudden, when you get to eight through nine, he speaks, this is about assurance. Right, So he gives them Israel's identity is God's chosen servant. But what is he doing? He's contrasting something. The nations are afraid. What Israel could be afraid because Israel could be thinking, oh, you gotta be kidding me. There's another king coming. He can be, he can be worse than these these guys. You is this ever going to end? And He's like, hey, no, no, no, no, no, guys, guys, guys, guys, you may be in Babylonian captivity, but who are you?

31:19 Who servant? Are you my servant? Who chose you? I have chosen you? So in verse five, the nation's fear. But Israel look at verse nine, what does it say in verse nine, specifically, in verse nine, I've chosen you. I've got you right, I've got you all right. God reaffirms his covenant with Israel, reminding them of their special role. So he identifies, Hey, guys, I'm identifying who you are.

31:59 You belong to me. Don't be afraid because they they've just and it since Israel's heard this court case, right, they've heard the court case, and they're like, oh no, no, I can see why they're building more idols. In fact, they may have been tempted to go do what, Hey, could you build a couple of idols for me? They could have been very tempted to do that. Okay, So the first section goes from eight through nine. This is Israel's identity as God's servant. What happens in verse ten, that's straight up the words AI get used, the command to fear not. That's very Sarah's talking Ai. Now, oh okay, I'm like, that's the exact language of Ai, the command to fear not, and it says, fear not if I am with you, being not dismayed, for I am your God. Now, three reasons are given for them not to fear. Three reasons are given for them not to fear. What are three reasons? Okay, God's presence, I am with you. Second, God's covenant relationship, I am your God. I cannot do not forget the covenant, right, I gotta drive the covenantal relationship in because that gives them. That's that covenant gives it about them all right, So what's the first reason they shouldn't fear God's presence? Second God's covenant. Number three,

33:31 God was sustaining power. God's sustaining power. Right, So verse ten This is the second section or the subsection. The command to fear not is verse ten. On the reasons they're not to fear is God's presence, God's covenant relationship, and God's sustaining power. Right now, what do we have in verses eleven through thirteen, Oh, okay, you're going the right direction, Ai says the fate of Israel's enemies. Okay, the fate of their enemies. And it says, behold all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame.

34:24 All who are incensed against you. Who's the you, Israel? All who are upset with you? Don't worry about them. Divine look uh divide. Basically, a divine reversal is going to occur. The enemies are going to vanish, Israel is going to stand. God is personally helping them. I the Lord, your God, will hold your right hand. Everybody see that. So in eleven through thirteen we read that behold all they that were incensed against these should be ashamed and confounded, they that they shoul be as nothing. And they that strive with THEE shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and shall not find them, even them that contend with THEE.

35:09 That war against thee shall be as nothing as a thing of not, for I the Lord that God will hold thy right hand, saying, under thee, fear not, I will help thee. All right, So he has a court case letting everyone know this raising king is coming. How does the Babylonians handle that bill? More her idols? And so then God steps in Israel, Israel, Israel, Calm down, calm down, Who are you my servant, my chosen. I'm gonna remind you of your identity, your identity right, you belong to God. And hey, I'm gonna give you a command to do what do not fear? And I'm going to give you three reasons not to fear. One of those three reasons God's presence, God's covenant, and God's sustaining power.

36:04 Then He's gonna tell them the fate of all your enemies, basically, what's the fate of all their enemies Verses eleven through thirteen. They're gonna be destroyed, They're not gonna be found, they're not gonna be anywhere near you. You're not gonna have to worry about them. Then we now move to the next section, section three, and Israel and Ai says this goes from fourteen through twenty. Okay, with another way we could divide it.

36:52 Oh okay, so that would be oh okay. Oh so you see in a pattern, a pattern within the language used. Okay, all right, that's that's good. That's that's good. Now I haven't asked AI to do that. I could ask give me the linguistic structure and it will break it down in the linguist destruction. But that's really good. Yeah, right, right, right right, But so it always and in fact, if it if you see what Sarah is saying, it kind of goes with our pattern from Isaiah forty to forty one.

37:50 It all starts with the philological foundation. Here's who I am. That that doesn't change now in forty one though he takes that theology and now applies in a specific way. That's that's really good. That's that's very good. That's very good observation. Right, And maybe i'll i'll maybe next week we'll come back when we go through it. I'll try hopefully I will remember that linguistic pattern. If I forget it, you can bring it up, because that's really good. All right. Now, next, so this is what AI does. It breaks the next section down from verse fourteen to twenty fourteen to twenty. All right, now, let's read fourteen through twenty. Everybody there, fear not thou worm, Jacob, and ye men of Israel.

38:35 I will help thee saith the Lord and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold. I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chef. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them, and thou shall rejoice in the Lord, and thou shall glory in the Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open the rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry lens springs of water.

39:17 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar of the shitta tree, and the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert, and the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together they that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. Now immediately, what jumps out at me in this section is the language gets very poetic, very poetic. This is a very very I can't a major shift in language, at least from my out my perspective. I could be wrong, but at least that's what I'm seeing. So I kind of see why AI wants to put this in its separate section.

39:57 I can kind of see why, but it what do you think? AI refers to this as it calls verse fourteen to twenty the transformation of Israel, the transformation of Israel. Right, And this is interesting, and I think this is why it includes verse fourteen right, because what is Israel referred to in verse fourteen a worm? Now, a worm should be what pretty concern of anything bigger than it? I mean, worms are slow typically, right, they can be taken by anything. They can be stepped on, they can be picked up, they can be carried, they can be blown away. Right, They're worms. So to refer to Jacob as a worm, as Sarah pointed out, because that's what she saw linguistically.

40:49 That's kind of where did that come from? Right? He's being all nice to them, and then all of a sudden, you're a worm, Like, well, that's that's not very nice. I don't want to be referred to as a worm, right, So I think that that's why Ai puts it here. Let's see if I'm right. Okay, So, and now, of course, how many sections is it gonna? Oh? Wait? This is It breaks the pattern here. It actually breaks the pattern. It actually breaks fourteen to twenty down to only two parts. It breaks the pattern here. I always see the three. This breaks it all right. So here's fourteen through twenty is the entire section. The Transformation of Israel Verses fourteen through sixteen is the first section. And Ai refers to this Israel as a worm. It's turned into a warrior. A worm is transformed. Okay, and look at it, fear not you worm, Jacob. And what does he say immediately after he refers to them as you worm, Jacob?

42:01 What does he say immediately after that, you mean of Israel? Okay? Then immediately I will help you. There you go all right, hey, your worm, but I'm going to help you. Right, Israel is weak like a worm. But with God's help, what do they become? Well, how does it describe them? What happens? This worm begins to do what becomes a threshing instrument with sharp teeth. That's no longer a worm, is it? You're gonna thresh the mountains? Can a worm thresh a mountain? Now?

42:43 It's using very poetic language to show the absurdity of this transformation, right, or I'm let me think about it. Not the absurdity, the improbability of the transformation. Is that a better word? Right? And it is absurd to think about. But it's improbable when you put a worm before a mountain and like, go thresh it. That's everyone's gonna laugh, right If I if I were like, hey, guys, we're gonna have a field trip. Let's go, we're gonna get We're gonna leave the church across the street. And what do we call that? What's that thing called right here? This hill mountain? What do we call it? Bald eagle mountain? Is that what they call it? Or whatever they call this thing over here? Okay, that's where teenagers used to go when I was in high school and go get drunk on top of that thing. Okay, but but wherever they were doing over there, Okay, if we went across the street right now, walked over to the base of it, and we put a worm like worm, go thresh it?

43:35 Everybody like this church is really stupid and why are you out here? Okay, well, first you go, I would like gets outside, you guys, go and tell me what happens FaceTime me. Right, but it's not going to do anything, is it. The worm is not going to In fact, it'll probably be bird food before we got back to the church. Right, It's not gonna do with it. That mountain would still be standing next week. All of a sudden, now this worm is turned into what uh what how do how does your translation read a threshing sledge a threshing instrument? So Israel is a worm? But with God they are gonna become a threshing sledge or get there we go AI uses the same word. Or it's gonna crush mountains. Oh, oh, very good, very good. That's that's a good. That's awesome. Forty Hey, he's gonna lay outside every mountain, make everything straight Israel, you're the little worm, and now you're gonna be used. And who does Cyrus call to prepare and get everything ready to go forward?

44:49 Israel's gonna be the one marching forward, gonna rebuild everything. So but it's all because of God. God is gonna utilize them to march forward. That's really that's a good idea. Now Ai does of or an interpretive thing here, but I'll just read it after mountains. Ai puts it in parentheses, and the mountains are nations is what AI thinks, right, Okay, yeah, I like that better, right, yeah, instead of them? Yeah, I agree, So, yeah, I agree if you're using warriors simply in a descriptive way. But warrior seems to conquering and defeating, and I think it's more like Israel's just now going to go from a worm to a marching nation, going back to their nation to rebuild, and not conquering and defeating. So I don't like the warrior analogy either.

46:00 You're gonna do a lot of it requires you have to do a lot of explaining. If it just goes from a worm to that's frail, right, so home right, right, So I would describe this section more from a worm to a threshing instrument and just use the language that's used, right, Does that make sense a worm turned into a threshing instrument instead of a warm worm turned into a warrior. I agree with that. The warrior gives the wrong image in my mind. Right, It's like Israel's gonna come out and they're gonna just go conquer every nation. They don't go conquer every nation. They go back home and they get well lazy, but they do make it back home.

46:48 And you're right, everything that would be opposing them getting back home, they get. Everything is laid is made flat, right, All the obstacles are removed, right, So the lowly are empowered by God, which is a recurring theme in Isaiah. And I agree, right, So we got that all right. So the first let's go all the way back here. We have a first major section is the Lord's sovereignty over nations Isaiah forty one one through seven. Everybody got that. That was broken into three parts. God's call. God calls the nations to court verses two through four, the rise of a conquering leader, and verses five through seven the nation's response. Then in verses eight through thirteen, this is God's assurance to Israel broken into three parts. Israel's identity is God's chosen, the commands to fear not, and the fate of Israel's enemies. Then we have the transformation of Israel and verses fourteen through twenty Israel is turned from a goes from a worm to a threshing instrument. That's the way we're gonna describe that. And then the second section here within that major set, the subsection this is verses seventeen through twenty. What happens in verses seventeen through twenty God's Can we say God's provision here seventeen through

48:19 twenty or forty one seventeenth through twenty. I think I said forty forty one through seventeenth through twenty. The poor and needy seek water, but there is none. Is that a fair that that's almost a direct quote from one of those verses, Or see that This is kind of exile imagery. They're gonna be weary, they're gonna be thirsty. But what's going to happen. God's going to provide, right, God is gonna miraculously transform transform the desert into a fertile land. This is kind of an Exodus motif of renewal, God's gonna provide. He's gonna give them everything they need. Now, how far do we take this language of renewing everything?

49:02 This is where some people would want to jump and go where to the millennial kingdom? This is where some people would want to jump to the millennial kingdom. I think we just see what God is saying is when you go back, Who's gonna get them there? God? Whatever they need from Babylon, back to Judah, back to Jerusalem. As Sarah already pointed out, go back to the language in forty Every mountain, every hill, every obstacle is gonna be made. The way is gonna be made smooth, the road's gonna be made plane, the mountains are gonna be laid. Everything, and you're gonna be able to march right back. And God's gonna provide everything. Nothing's gonna be the way, not even physical hunger or any He's gonna provide for them, just in a sense like he provided them from coming out of Egypt's the same motif, in the same concept.

49:50 All right, now I want to go further. Oh, we can do this. We can do this because we only really have one more section. We only have twenty one to twenty nine left to go, right, okay, twenty one, twenty nine, all right? He breaks Oh well, ay, I breaks it down into three parts like always, all right, so I gotta go through these quickly, all right, twenty one through twenty nine. I was gonna read it, but we don't have time to read it. Okay, twenty one through twenty nine. Everyone looking at it. First sub section. AI breaks it down twenty one to twenty four, twenty one to twenty four. What is happening here? God begins to challenge the idols basically? And what is he challenging the idols here? Can idols predict the future? Set forth your case? Says the Lord? He challenges the idols? Can they declare the past? Can they predict the future? Can they do anything meaningful? And what is his verdict? Look at verse twenty four. What is the verdict of this section?

50:53 Less than nothing? They're less than nothing? All right? So this is God challenge the idols. He's challenging that. This goes back to the courtroom concept that we've already established is happening in this section? Right, He's like, hey, let me speak directly to the idols and a roundabout way, what was happening here? All right? What happens in verse twenty five through twenty seven? What's going on in twenty five through twenty seven? All right? Now he challenged the idols twenty five through twenty seven. God, that demonstrates that he alone can predict, and he alone can control. He predicts and he controls. What is it? First thing it's talked about here? Did he stir someone up? Or? And he has again? The most likely This is also our reference to Cyrus the Great, whom God raised up to defeat Babylon and deliver is Unlike idols. God proves his power by revealing history before it happens. The idols can't predict, the idols can't rise up. God can take care of all of this, right, so he challenges the idols in twenty one through twenty four, twenty five through twenty seven.

52:21 It demonstrates God can predict and God can control. And then what happens in twenty eight through twenty nine. This is the final verdict of the entire chapter. What's the final verdict twenty eight through twenty nine? For I beheld and there was no man even among them? There was no counselor, and when I asked of them could answer a word. There's none that can answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity. Their works are nothing, Their multen images are wind and confusion. The final verdict is they are worthless. The idols are worthless. They are completely worthless.

53:13 All right. So I'm gonna summarize the chapter into four points. Here we go, You ready, Here we go. Number one. I gotta go through these quickly. God's sovereignty over nations Verses one through seven, which we've already talked about. He directs History, raises rulers cyrus the nation's fear, but respond with idolatry. I'm just summarizing it, all right, in a good, nice summary. God's sovereignty over nations. He directs History raises cyrus, the nation's fear, but they instead run to idols. Number two, God's reassurance to Israel Verses eight through thirteen. Israel is chosen, secure and upheld by God. Enemies will be defeated, but Israel will stand. That's God's reassurance to Israel eight through thirteen.

53:58 Verses fourteen through twenty. We know what we're gonna call it. Right, Israel's transformation from weakness to strength, from wilderness to renewal, and verse twenty one through twenty nine the failures of idols. Idols cannot predict the future. God alone predicts, controls, intervenes, make happens everything else you want to say, All right, any questions now, I think we did pretty good. The one part I did mess up on a think king, where was it? If I can find it. I don't know why I kept doing it. I did it like four times. Yeah, and verse six, I don't know why.

54:54 I think the way the text is written here, they helped everyone his neighbor, right, But I think I said like three times they helped everyone his neighbor. And then I then it's broken down neighbors like the first it's the top of the sentence, and then it breaks it and then b oh, you are boor is separate, And I think I kept saying it as separate, like the neighbor bore, No, it's the neighbor, because I would just I see part of the word, and I just feel in the rest. That's how you speed read, right, you see part of the word. I don't need to read. I just move on. So I'm like, nay, were no, and it's neighbor okay, And everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. Orry there, we have it all right. So I wanted to correct that because I know I caught myself doing like five times, and then I looked at the page and I'm like, oh, that's not two separate words. It's a neighbor, okay. So all right, any questions about the chapter. I think we understand Isaiah for it won pretty good, now, do we not? I think we understand. Now here's the thing. Because we did that.

55:51 Now when we start going through it, we should be able to go through at a rapid pace. Correct. But it will be somewhat repetitive because we've already gone through it. But the reason we go through it to go through it again is so that it drives to sections home. So what we'll do is each section, if we take one section per sermon. If we do that, or we just may go through the whole chapter really quick. I will try to find specific things to emphasize, but I think you've got the overall art. In some ways, we could be done with the chapter, so we should be able to move through it really, really, really quick. Because I mean, we took that apart really well. God calls them to court and then he ends with his final verdict, which is basically, the Idols are useless and Israel doesn't need anything to be afraid of, and Cyrus is clearly coming.

56:38 He hasn't named him yet, but now the only thing that would if there was a challenge or that kind of confused me. Is there anything that jumps out at you that kind of confuses you or you're like, wait a minute, I'm a little confused here. Well, this is where I was a little confused. Forty one to two says who raise up the righteous man from the east? And then forty one what was it verse twenty five, I have raised one up from the north right. That caught me a little Now. Now, according to at least my study Bible, the conquest of Media by Cyrus five point fifty BC made him master of the territories north of Babylon. So most likely maybe he starts in the east.

57:31 But what it's trying to demonstrate by the time you get here is that Cyrus, guy I raised up, has moved now to north of Babylon, and he's now captured. It's trying to demonstrate this, I'm controlling everything here. I know exactly where he is. I raised him from the east, but now he's coming from the north, meaning that he's on the move. He's on I think that's the idea. But in other words, you can you can connect Cyrus to the east and you can connects Cyrus to the north because he's moving right, He's moving right, so I think, and that's that's that's that fits me perfectly why everyone could be afraid. Right, he's getting closer. Okay, build the idols faster, right. Oh yeah, he's taking over everything. Yeah yeah, he's just taking everything, right, And so they're like, oh boy, so build some idols. But the way it ultimately plays out is kind of hilarious. At some point they were obviously scared, and then at some point they were just kind of like, maybe because everyone's so scared, there's no point here, do I Right? Yeah, right, that's what I'm saying.

58:45 When the Babylonians, who are obviously the ones kind of being scared here, I think at some point they kind of just realize either we go to war and we all die, or we just get taken over and he comes in and then to their shot. Probably, Hey, let's let all the Jews go, and they're kind of like what just happened here? Like because those Jews may have been like their slave labor, their servants, and also like you're just gonna let them go? What is wrong with you? And then they may go with this guy isn't well. The Jews would have been like, this guy isn't half bad? Right. I don't know how the Babylonians would have felt about it from an economic standpoint, but yeah, it's fascinating the way it plays out. All right, let's pray where got we come before you? Lord? I pray we do see your power, your greatness, your sovereignty in this chapter. But we apply that power, sovereignty and greatness of you to our lives in a correct way, in a spiritual way, in a solvafic way, and not with some guarantee that you're gonna resolve all of our problems and we're gonna have some we're gonna take these promises for ourselves. Lord, that would be very wrong if we do that, and we would lead people to false comfort and a great sense of disillusionment and anger when it doesn't work out that way. Praise you for what you did do, and understand how this does apply to us, and what you have done in Christ for us and our salvation and what awaits us in eternity. And we ask this in Jesus name. And God's people said