back to index20160504 Wed Bible Study
00:00:09.120 |
So if you notice that the previous passage, it ended with sort of a reminder of Israel's 00:00:15.560 |
sin and then if you look at verse 25 and 28 through 28 in chapter 43, it was a call to 00:00:23.040 |
So the theme that we begin in chapter 44 is connected to that, where God is still calling 00:00:28.240 |
out and if you remember at the very end, again there's a prophecy of God's faithfulness and 00:00:33.240 |
so chapter 44 begins by reminding us of what Israel, how Israel means, like what Israel 00:00:41.400 |
So the first question was that why is Israel told not to fear? 00:00:58.800 |
Okay, you can just jot it down and then I'll talk after you guys jot it down. 00:02:13.280 |
All right, so the first question was, the theme, again, 00:02:18.600 |
in the first three verses, where God is reminding the nation 00:02:21.040 |
of Israel and kind of encouraging them not to fear. 00:02:33.400 |
Remember, we talked about that last week, where there's 00:02:37.600 |
And then he says, but I have not forgotten you. 00:02:41.080 |
So last week, we talked about how God reminds them 00:02:43.720 |
in verse 21, how he brought judgment upon them. 00:02:49.240 |
and they didn't turn to him and give sacrifices. 00:02:52.320 |
And yet, despite that, it ends with God pleading with them 00:02:58.560 |
So despite their sins, despite their failures, 00:03:09.800 |
Like God has formed you from your mother's womb. 00:03:17.840 |
When he says God has formed you from the womb, 00:03:21.520 |
Whenever God is trying to encourage or to remind 00:03:24.120 |
the nation that he is with them, that phrase is like, 00:03:26.960 |
I've known you, or God formed me from my mother's womb. 00:03:29.920 |
What is the imagery, and what is the encouragement 00:03:36.760 |
whenever either David is saying that of himself, 00:03:42.440 |
even from my mother's womb, or God is telling Israel 00:03:48.800 |
So those of you who are a little bit more sensitive 00:03:55.040 |
In what context would that be an encouragement? 00:04:07.240 |
that this is not just somebody that you met randomly, right? 00:04:10.160 |
This is, in a sense, it's kind of like family, right? 00:04:13.960 |
Like, I've known you since you were, like I say that, 00:04:19.640 |
yeah, I've known you since you were a little kid. 00:04:41.640 |
because you're not just like anybody else, right? 00:04:51.240 |
So whatever danger is around you, like I chose you, 00:05:06.920 |
It's not just a, I'm not just gonna deliver you 00:05:10.520 |
but my blessing is upon you and your descendants, right? 00:05:21.520 |
"Another will write on his hand, the Lord's." 00:05:28.840 |
That you don't need to fear because my name is on you, right? 00:05:40.080 |
it's like he says, if he is for us, who can be against us? 00:05:47.240 |
No matter, again, he's gonna be talking about 00:05:49.240 |
how he's gonna establish King Cyrus to deliver them, 00:05:56.460 |
like Isaiah is prophesying even before the captivity. 00:06:05.360 |
from the moment that Isaiah is prophesying this, 00:06:21.480 |
150 to possibly 200 years where he's prophesying. 00:06:28.880 |
if you don't believe in miracles and prophecies, 00:06:31.120 |
it's like, oh, Isaiah could not have written this, right? 00:06:37.480 |
but that portion where his specific name, right, 00:06:48.280 |
God is actually speaking through him and prophesying, 00:06:50.600 |
or Isaiah could not have written this, right? 00:07:00.800 |
So basically he prophesied that King Cyrus is gonna come, 00:07:06.200 |
and then he goes into description of the Babylonians 00:07:10.960 |
So he's kind of telling them, again, in the future, 00:07:20.560 |
What evidences are given in the next verses six, seven, 00:07:24.280 |
and eight, right, that he is the king, right? 00:07:28.480 |
One, so the first section he begins by saying, 00:07:34.380 |
"I will bless your nations, my name is for you are mine," 00:07:37.720 |
right, and then the second part of it, he says, 00:07:44.120 |
"I'm the one, I'm the king because I redeemed you, right? 00:07:55.240 |
the Bible describes our salvation as moving kingdoms, right? 00:07:58.480 |
We've been transferred from the kingdom of darkness 00:08:04.400 |
So he says, "I'm your king because I redeemed you." 00:08:18.460 |
"let them declare what is to come and what will happen." 00:08:23.360 |
When he says, "What I declare, it comes true." 00:08:27.100 |
How would you be encouraged if you heard that? 00:08:43.800 |
- Right, every promise he makes will come true, 00:08:49.200 |
What other king, what other idol can tell you these things 00:09:05.180 |
many different passages throughout the scripture. 00:09:14.280 |
What's another way that Paul says it, first and last? 00:09:17.280 |
Everything is created by him and for him, right? 00:09:22.280 |
That he is sovereign over the past, present, and future. 00:09:31.960 |
again, I'm just gonna leave these for your discussion later. 00:09:42.920 |
I will bless you by pouring my spirit upon you, right? 00:09:47.000 |
So what is the difference between walking in the spirit 00:09:53.320 |
Okay, so again, I'll leave that for your discussion later. 00:09:56.120 |
All right, so what's the main point of verses nine through 20? 00:10:02.400 |
He gives a long illustration about these idols. 00:10:07.740 |
Take a few minutes, I'm sure you'll have more time 00:10:12.480 |
But in your small group, just take a few minutes, 00:10:15.080 |
and I think there are probably more than one lesson here. 00:10:34.680 |
And so you may gain different insights, right? 00:10:46.340 |
So take a few minutes, okay, don't do your homework now. 00:10:49.840 |
Okay, take a few minutes to discuss with your group 00:15:21.680 |
All right, let me ask you guys to just kind of share 00:15:24.680 |
some of the thoughts that came out during your discussion. 00:15:34.120 |
but what are some things that you discuss in your group 00:15:52.080 |
it's a very extensive way of basically calling it 00:16:07.080 |
Just the aspect of you find this, you cut it, you carve it, 00:16:26.040 |
[INAUDIBLE] will go through all of this stupidity and trouble 00:16:38.560 |
is basically the foolishness, kind of illustrating 00:16:43.040 |
Like, why you would go through all that trouble 00:16:45.560 |
to make this idol that's ultimately worthless, right? 00:16:52.040 |
Also, it's just so foolish to be able to think this thing 00:17:18.020 |
you parted it into staples, and you took over, 00:17:21.520 |
you're showing it by that you have the power over it. 00:17:24.520 |
And then you turn around and the other piece of worship 00:17:35.520 |
It seems kind of-- if you put some thought into it, 00:17:43.020 |
with the little piece left over, you're worshiping it. 00:17:46.020 |
Again, to illustrate in more detail the foolishness. 00:17:50.020 |
Obviously, the illustration is like many other illustrations, 00:17:55.520 |
took so much time to illustrate the details of it, 00:17:59.520 |
kind of like God is revealing to them just how foolish this is, 00:18:03.520 |
if you were to just take a step back and look at it. 00:18:07.020 |
Just for the sake of time, he says, in other words, 00:18:16.020 |
God gave you a tree for you to use to cook and whatever, 00:18:21.020 |
and then you turn it around and you make what God has made 00:18:26.020 |
Again, these are just some observations that I've made. 00:18:30.020 |
A lot of time and effort into making something 00:18:35.020 |
Again, God gave wood to be used for man and not to worship it. 00:18:40.020 |
Again, these are all same points, just said a different way. 00:18:44.020 |
I don't know about you, but if you study through Isaiah 00:18:54.020 |
and you see God pleading with Israel over and over and over and over again, 00:18:58.020 |
and we're talking about, even though Isaiah is talking about 00:19:01.020 |
a short period of history, we're talking about 200 years of history. 00:19:04.020 |
The over a thousand years of Israel's history was the same thing. 00:19:09.020 |
In fact, if you take it even further out, mankind's history, 00:19:12.020 |
thousands and thousands of years of history is the same thing 00:19:15.020 |
where God disciplines and then he comes and he pleads with them 00:19:21.020 |
And then as soon as they're doing OK, they forget and they become proud. 00:19:26.020 |
They forget God over and over and God is pleading. 00:19:28.020 |
And then I look at like, how many times do you need to give this instruction 00:19:35.020 |
And how many times do you do this and then they forget it 00:19:42.020 |
At some point, you would think God would just, his patience would be exhausted 00:19:51.020 |
And the fact that he's taking this kind of time to go to this kind of detail 00:19:56.020 |
to show them, plead with them, another generation, the same thing over and over. 00:20:00.020 |
It's just kind of, to me, don't you get frustrated when you read this stuff? 00:20:05.020 |
Even though we say, wow, God is so merciful and faithful 00:20:11.020 |
But if you were to put yourself in God's position, 00:20:15.020 |
even just for a minute while you're reading this, 00:20:19.020 |
Look at Israel's history over and over again. 00:20:21.020 |
And yet, again, God is patient because through all of this, 00:20:31.020 |
That's really the conclusion that we should come to. 00:20:36.020 |
And that's why when Christ comes as a Redeemer, 00:20:41.020 |
And again, as we've been talking about in Romans, 00:20:44.020 |
why it can only be by his promise and by his calling. 00:20:48.020 |
If you look at Israel's history, this is not just about Israel, this is us. 00:20:55.020 |
Again, this is another application of Christ, I think. 00:21:06.020 |
"They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, 00:21:13.020 |
So the question was, if God shut their eyes and hardened their hearts, 00:21:25.020 |
How do you reconcile that when somebody asks you that question? 00:21:51.020 |
I thought you had something to say and that's why he was trying to push you over the edge. 00:22:33.020 |
It's interesting, especially when you look at the way God deals with Pharaoh. 00:22:37.020 |
God deals with Pharaoh and he says in three separate times about Pharaoh hardening his heart. 00:22:44.020 |
He says it in the active, he says it in the middle, and he says it in the passive. 00:22:55.020 |
Not all from Exodus, but basically in Exodus 4.21, it says the same thing that he says here, 00:23:02.020 |
And then in Exodus 8.15, he says God allowed Pharaoh's heart to be hardened. 00:23:06.020 |
And I forgot to put the other one, where the other one says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. 00:23:13.020 |
So you look at the way God deals with them, it's like all three is mentioned. 00:23:18.020 |
But in the end, I think the summary in Romans 1.18, is a summary of mankind. 00:23:24.020 |
They rather have darkness than light, so God gave them over. 00:23:33.020 |
Does God ever take a man who is repentant and righteous, and he hardens his heart just to condemn him? 00:23:45.020 |
When he says he hardens their heart, he's usually talking about a sinner who refuses to repent, 00:23:49.020 |
and he's kind of releasing them to where they're already headed. Right? 00:23:56.020 |
Now, it's hard for us to, again, understand how does God's sovereign work work with man's ability to choose for himself. 00:24:02.020 |
Like, we don't know exactly how that works, but clearly the scripture says that God is not the originator of evil. 00:24:08.020 |
God does not take something good and he makes it bad. 00:24:12.020 |
So, when we understand this in the context of rest of scripture, 00:24:16.020 |
and then we see it in the context of the way he deals with Pharaoh, right? 00:24:20.020 |
There is an active part that what God plays, because he's sovereign. 00:24:24.020 |
There is a part where he's just kind of releasing and letting it happen. 00:24:28.020 |
And then there's a part where the recipient is actively hardening his heart. 00:24:33.020 |
And all three are mentioned about the same Pharaoh. 00:24:50.020 |
Okay, so, again, in the context of God reaffirming to the nation of Israel, 00:24:55.020 |
right, describing in detail all the work of God that we are to sing and worship him. 00:25:01.020 |
So, verse 21 to 28, the people of God break out into songs. 00:25:05.020 |
How does each one of these works of God give you confidence to trust and worship him? 00:25:10.020 |
So, all of these things in response to his promises and the things that he's doing. 00:25:15.020 |
So, God calls Israel to remember who he is to them in contrast to what idols are that was stated in the previous passage. 00:25:23.020 |
So, again, the long illustration that we saw in verse 19 to 20. 00:25:27.020 |
So, now in 21 through 28, in contrast to these worthless idols, who is God? 00:25:34.020 |
Now, you have a tendency to go to these worthless things that you can… that is made to cook fire and to keep warm. 00:25:51.020 |
He's blotted out their transgressions, verse 22. 00:25:56.020 |
And ultimately, because of that, he redeemed them. 00:25:59.020 |
So, again, if you read verse 9 through 20, and then 21 to 28, like all in one sitting, 00:26:06.020 |
you can clearly see the contrast that he's making. 00:26:11.020 |
This is one statement that he's making, and it was meant to kind of be seen side by side. 00:26:18.020 |
This is what you are tempted with, and this is who I am. 00:26:27.020 |
Even if you're not a worshipper of Yahweh, even if you never knew God, the fact that you would even depend on the idol, it's foolish. 00:26:36.020 |
You make these little items that you can cook, all it is is wood. 00:26:39.020 |
But when you contrast that to Yahweh, you contrast that to who God is and what he has done for them, 00:26:45.020 |
then it takes the foolishness to a whole new level. 00:26:50.020 |
So, it's just like, you know, again, as Christians, it's one thing to live in sin when you didn't know God. 00:26:59.020 |
But another thing to live in sin in contrast to seeing the glory of God. 00:27:06.020 |
And that's why the Bible says the second state is worse than the first. 00:27:10.020 |
Because now the sin has even become worse because before you may have done it in ignorance and it's still foolish to seek after things that are temporary. 00:27:20.020 |
But in light of what you have in Christ and yet you still choose the world, the foolishness of that. 00:27:27.020 |
So, again, when you read verse 9 through 28 put together, which was I think meant to be read together, 00:27:33.020 |
again, the foolishness of worshipping idols is even that much more hard to understand. 00:27:40.020 |
Again, he introduces to us, again, the King Cyrus. 00:27:50.020 |
This happened almost about 200 years after Isaiah prophesied. 00:27:53.020 |
So, again, just as a review, right, his prophecy begins during the period of Assyrians. 00:28:01.020 |
And he prophesied that the Babylonians are going to come. 00:28:05.020 |
And then after the Babylonians, the Persians come. 00:28:09.020 |
So, he's talking about three kingdoms that's going to come and they're going to conquer. 00:28:14.020 |
And God's using each one of them for what purpose? 00:28:20.020 |
What is the central purpose of, according to Isaiah, of the Assyrian kingdom, of the Babylonian kingdom, and of the Persian kingdom? 00:28:41.020 |
What is, you know, what's a tiny little country that no one would be offended if I mentioned it today? 00:28:54.020 |
Imagine a country that you would never think of. 00:29:00.020 |
You know, it's not a country that would have any kind of say in the UN. 00:29:07.020 |
And to say that US, Russia, China are all being played out for that little country. 00:29:15.020 |
I mean, think how ridiculous that may have sounded at that time. 00:29:21.020 |
Isaiah is a prophet from a tiny little nation that's being conquered and is clinging to Egypt, clinging to— 00:29:27.020 |
and little Philistines are coming and kicking their butt. 00:29:30.020 |
And then Isaiah is saying, he's like, "Our sovereign God is wielding the, you know, the Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and the Assyrians, and, you know, 00:29:41.020 |
That God is wielding them for His glory, and ultimately He's going to bring a descendant." 00:29:51.020 |
You would think that something great is happening in Assyria. 00:29:54.020 |
Something great is happening in Babylon or Persia. 00:29:58.020 |
Only in retrospect, we look back at it now, and we see Christ, and because of what Christ has done, we look at who made a bigger impact in human history. 00:30:15.020 |
Nobody compares to what happened when Christ came. 00:30:19.020 |
In retrospect, 2,000 years later, we look at it now, all those kingdoms, like what Isaiah is saying, actually makes sense now. 00:30:27.020 |
Can you imagine at that time if you heard that? 00:30:30.020 |
Like, tiny little nation that was a speck, it meant nothing to say, "All of this has happened because of this country." 00:30:38.020 |
But we have the benefit of looking back at that and say, "Wow!" 00:30:50.020 |
You would be like saying that the earth is going to turn the other direction for a while. 00:31:00.020 |
Which obviously now we have a retrospect, we can look at that and say it's real. 00:31:05.020 |
This is why the secular people have such a hard time with Isaiah, because how could Isaiah possibly have known this? 00:31:15.020 |
They have a hard time even saying, "How could he have known this guy, the king of Persia, was going to be Cyrus, 00:31:20.020 |
and he was going to send Israel back to rebuild the temple and all that stuff?" 00:31:27.020 |
But it's just crazy when you really think about it, like when this was written, and now we're looking back, this actually happened. 00:31:37.020 |
Cyrus was the pagan king over Persia, and yet God calls him the anointed one. 00:31:53.020 |
God uses Cyrus as his shepherd because the shepherds of Israel were not leading or feeding. 00:32:01.020 |
Leading his people, but only taking advantage of them. 00:32:08.020 |
God is sovereign over history, therefore God is sovereign over those who have any authority. 00:32:16.020 |
Again, if you were a Jew, or early Christian, and then when he heard from Paul, and he says, "Submit yourself to the authority, all authority," because all authority is established by who? 00:32:33.020 |
So if you were a Christian or a Jew at that particular time, to think like, "Wow, Caesar is under God's control?" 00:32:47.020 |
But when you look at what happens in the prophecies of Isaiah, that's exactly what happens. 00:32:55.020 |
This is why, you know, when he says, "God makes promises, and he does not change." 00:33:04.020 |
And there's illustration after illustration throughout Scripture, throughout church history, throughout human history, where God, we can clearly see. 00:33:14.020 |
We're the ones short-sighted because if I can't, if it doesn't make sense in my head, right? 00:33:25.020 |
We tend to pray for things that we think are possible. 00:33:30.020 |
We kind of pray for miracles just kind of on the side. 00:33:37.020 |
Yeah, I remember somebody pointed that out to me years ago when I went to China for the first time. 00:33:42.020 |
This lady was like a prayer warrior, and she went into, she was planning to go into China. 00:33:50.020 |
And she would pray, she probably fasted like maybe once every three or four days. 00:33:59.020 |
So, one of the most diligent prayer warriors that I've ever met, one of the things that she said to me that really stuck with me ever since, was as I was praying with her, and then after I prayed, she said, "Peter, you know, you're always praying defensively." 00:34:14.020 |
"You're always praying for protection, you're praying for health, you're praying for all this stuff, but, you know, pray in faith." 00:34:26.020 |
"This is a, the God that you're praying to is God. 00:34:30.020 |
And so you're, even in the way that you pray, and what you pray kind of shows what you believe about God." 00:34:36.020 |
And I remember her saying that, like, "Yeah, it's like so true. This lady is like a prayer warrior. She knows what she's talking about." 00:34:43.020 |
That's probably one of the most significant things that I learned about prayer through somebody. 00:34:49.020 |
But again, like, we have a tendency to be short-sighted. 00:34:52.020 |
So when you see, you know, all the time when you see, study the Bible, and you see things like this, like, God's seeing from this perspective. 00:34:58.020 |
And He's trying to, that's why He keeps mentioning over and over, "I am, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, right, and Jacob, because the God that they worship, the miracles that I perform with them, I'm that God." 00:35:12.020 |
"I'm the one who delivered Israel. I'm the one who conquered the Assyrians and the Babylonians." 00:35:17.020 |
So all of this to kind of show them who He is, so that we can have confidence in who He is, right? 00:35:29.020 |
Verse 4 says, "God names him Cyrus again, that he would actually even equip you through though you do not know me." 00:35:41.020 |
Remember, Jesus says that, you know, when the Pharisees, "Stop telling your disciples to praise you." 00:35:46.020 |
And He said, "If they don't praise me, then these rocks will cry out." 00:35:51.020 |
The Gakud use even, don't you, you can't see it? 00:36:23.020 |
So how does God reveal Himself to Cyrus in verse 5 to 7? 00:36:30.020 |
God will show Himself to be sovereign over human history. 00:36:32.020 |
In other words, He's going to reveal Himself through Cyrus, that He is Cyrus. 00:36:57.020 |
So He says, "I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. 00:37:00.020 |
I equip you though you do not know me, that my people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. 00:37:15.020 |
So again, part of this is in direct refute of the God of the Persians. 00:37:27.020 |
And so when He says that He's the God of calamity, good or bad, He's sovereign. 00:37:33.020 |
So again, in essence, He's revealing Himself to Israel and also to Cyrus, who the true God is. 00:37:43.020 |
So in other words, God is not only in control when you see the blessing and good things and God seems to be answering prayer. 00:37:52.020 |
Even in his darkest moment, God had never lost control. 00:37:55.020 |
All of that was happening because God allowed it. 00:37:59.020 |
So is there anything that happens in your life and my life that God is absolutely out of, has no control over? 00:38:12.020 |
Sometimes God may be allowing it to happen, but God is absolutely sovereign. 00:38:20.020 |
We get anxious over things because things are out of our control. 00:38:25.020 |
We are hoping and planning certain things and we want certain things to happen, the results aren't happening the way we want, whatever it may be, and we get anxious. 00:38:32.020 |
So anxiousness comes when we feel like things that I have control over are slipping out of my hands. 00:38:38.020 |
But this is a reminder that God is in absolute control. 00:38:41.020 |
That's why He says, "Be anxious for nothing." 00:38:48.020 |
That's your request to be made known to God and the peace of God which guards your, you know, which surpasses human understanding will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. 00:39:03.020 |
A person or a nation resisting God is like a potter, or is like a pot contending with the potter. 00:39:10.020 |
God is in the context of accomplishing His work. 00:39:27.020 |
Maybe the reason why, you know, all this stuff is happening, you know, a lot of times, it's just to break us down. 00:39:33.020 |
Because until we're broken, we can't be molded. 00:39:37.020 |
But whatever it is, to come before God to complain for anything is like complaining to the potter and saying, "Hey, hey, hey, you know, you don't know what you're doing." 00:39:52.020 |
Unbelief basically is contending with God and saying, "No, you know, you're not making the pot correctly." 00:40:03.020 |
I think the greatest time of sanctification always is when you're hurt. 00:40:15.020 |
Humbles your pride, any kind of confidence that you had in the past, whatever it is, security that you're holding on to, God kind of yanks that out of your hand. 00:40:24.020 |
And then you're kind of like broken, you're hurt, maybe you're angry, you're in despair, maybe even unbelief. 00:40:32.020 |
And God brings you to that point because he's trying to mold you into something. 00:40:42.020 |
And it tends to be like when God is really working to sanctify you, reaching into a place maybe that you've hidden for so long. 00:40:49.020 |
Like God, usually when God wants to go in there and do something, it hurts. 00:40:56.020 |
The deeper it is, the more it's going to hurt. 00:40:58.020 |
But he said God does that to build, ultimately, his people, his children. 00:41:04.020 |
And he says, "Ask of me the things to come concerning my children and the works of my hands." 00:41:10.020 |
So we are not able to see the big picture because we only know what is. 00:41:25.020 |
That's why I think it's always good to be connected with saints that have gone before us. 00:41:33.020 |
A lot of times hearing the struggles and the trials of people who have gone the previous generation. 00:41:38.020 |
You know, again, I think especially in the Western generation, like because we value youth, and we have a tendency that all movement happens with the youth. 00:41:47.020 |
When's the last time you saw a 60-year-old, you know, in the head of some kind of movement? 00:41:54.020 |
Not in the Western culture, because the Western culture usually wants new, you know, innovations. 00:42:03.020 |
But I think that what we miss from that is the wisdom that comes from people who have lived a long period of time. 00:42:10.020 |
There's a lot of things to gain from the previous generation. 00:42:17.020 |
And being young, we are even more short-sighted because we don't see the bigger picture. 00:42:23.020 |
So, the danger that I caution all of us, all of you, is that because you're surrounded by even younger people. 00:42:31.020 |
I mean, you're young, but you're surrounded by even younger people. 00:42:34.020 |
And so you start having a mentality, "I'm an old man at the age of 30." 00:42:43.020 |
And so when you start having that kind of mentality, where you become the teacher too early, you stop learning. 00:42:54.020 |
And I think that's why becoming a pastor, becoming a leader, it actually is hurtful. 00:43:01.020 |
Because you're always putting on that hat to teach people. 00:43:04.020 |
Again, this is kind of sidetracked, but I think there's a danger. 00:43:11.020 |
So, I think the wisdom would cause ourselves to see how short-sighted we are in constantly seeking the bigger picture. 00:43:20.020 |
And obviously we go to God, but there's people who have gone before us. 00:43:25.020 |
So, I love talking to older pastors who've been in ministry longer. 00:43:29.020 |
You know, and the things that they say, the observations that they had. 00:43:32.020 |
And because it helps me to see my current situation a lot better. 00:43:37.020 |
So, again, in the larger scale of things, you see what God is doing. 00:43:45.020 |
Everything that you've been feeling, every conflict and every struggle that you have, 00:43:50.020 |
Some generation was wrestling with that same thing before. 00:44:01.020 |
And what effect will Israel's deliverance have among the Gentiles? 00:44:04.020 |
So, here, you know, it talks about how Israel is delivered. 00:44:09.020 |
The nations that Israel had to submit to will come and bow down to Israel. 00:44:14.020 |
So, in other words, Israel's deliverance means deliverance for who? 00:44:22.020 |
Israel's deliverance means deliverance for who? 00:44:29.020 |
So, you can read all of this and say, "Oh, God only cares about Israel." 00:44:37.020 |
He said, "His plan is that through Israel, He's going to bless the nations." 00:44:50.020 |
Again, because we're short-sighted, so we only see, like, "Oh, God loves Israel. 00:44:56.020 |
You know, but when you look at the larger picture, like what God is doing in history, 00:45:00.020 |
that He's the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega. 00:45:06.020 |
He just happens to be, like, the plan that He's going to carry this out is through the nation of Israel. 00:45:15.020 |
God not only created the world, He said everyone in it, He created. 00:45:33.020 |
Alright, so, you know, again, as we wrap up, one of the things that I think is a clear theme that keeps coming up over and over again 00:45:55.020 |
His patience with Israel is because He's being patient with us. 00:46:00.020 |
Because the Messiah is coming through that line. 00:46:02.020 |
Salvation is going to come through that line. 00:46:05.020 |
So all of this is, again, is God patient towards sinners to save us. 00:46:13.020 |
Alright, so if you guys can take some time with your small group.