back to index2016-05-18 Wed Bible Study
00:00:00.000 |
I'm just gonna highlight certain issues here, okay? 00:00:11.880 |
So again, as you're reading, you can just kind of follow through. 00:00:16.120 |
And then I'm gonna, the ones I'm not gonna explain, I'll just leave it up there, you 00:00:20.360 |
And then the ones that I'm gonna highlight will take a few minutes to talk, okay? 00:00:23.720 |
So if you look at chapter 48, it begins by saying, "Hear this, O house of Jacob, who 00:00:33.080 |
are called by my name, by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah." 00:00:38.360 |
And the first question I ask is, what does the name Jacob mean, and how does it relate 00:00:42.800 |
to the indictment, not incitement, indictment God brings against them in verse 1? 00:00:48.200 |
So what is the significance of him saying, "O house of Jacob, but you call yourself 00:00:55.440 |
Israel," and then he says, "who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name 00:01:00.000 |
of the Lord and confess God Israel, but not in truth or right." 00:01:03.560 |
So anybody took some time to look into the meaning of Jacob and Israel, and what's the 00:01:10.800 |
It kind of sets the tone for the rest of the chapter. 00:01:32.440 |
Israel was, God gave, God changed Jacob's name to Israel when he wrestled with God, 00:02:30.680 |
Alright, so the name of it, he says, "the healer, the catcher of supplanted, the one 00:02:37.560 |
And then Israel prides itself of contending with God, in other words, they call themselves 00:02:42.360 |
Israel, the ones who contend with God, but he says, "you're acting like Jacob," meaning 00:02:47.000 |
before you met God and he was slippery, he's always cunning and trying to maneuver to get 00:02:53.360 |
He's saying, "you call yourself to confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right," 00:03:01.040 |
So what you call yourself and who you really are are different. 00:03:05.200 |
So he's calling them out for their hypocrisy, like, "you view yourself one way, but the 00:03:09.040 |
truth is that you're acting more like Jacob than Israel," right? 00:03:13.560 |
And so that's the tone that he sets, for they call themselves after the holy city, and they 00:03:17.600 |
themselves on the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts of his name, and then basically saying, 00:03:24.600 |
Like, you're going back to your origin, saying, "oh, God is our God, you know, we have a covenant 00:03:29.280 |
with this God, we're Israel, God favors us, but in reality you're acting more like your 00:03:40.720 |
So again, the point of all of this is God's constantly reminding them, okay, chapter 8, 00:03:44.960 |
the tone of chapter 8 is reminding them that even though that's how you view yourself, 00:03:53.320 |
And so, but even in the context of that, he's saying, "even though that's who you are," 00:03:58.160 |
like he said, he's remaining faithful to himself, and then the promised Messiah, and then again 00:04:02.680 |
he goes into details about this Messiah that's coming. 00:04:15.080 |
So what is the motivation that he says he's doing what he's doing? 00:04:23.960 |
Again, just let me take a minute to just emphasize here, when you first read or heard from a 00:04:34.560 |
sermon or read in the Bible, it said, "God does this for his own glory, for my own glory 00:04:39.000 |
I will not give to another," what was your first response to that? 00:04:43.720 |
What was your honest response when you read or heard for the first time, "God does this 00:05:15.440 |
That's the first thing that I thought was like, "oh, he's seeking his own glory." 00:05:21.680 |
Imagine somebody else saying, "I did it for me, for my own glory, I will not give my glory 00:05:31.960 |
So I think a lot of people when they first hear that, they're like, "huh." 00:05:34.720 |
I'm sure you've talked to a non-Christian or maybe a young Christian, they may have 00:05:39.000 |
So why is that important for us to recognize that God's seeking his own glory? 00:05:45.600 |
If it's not negative, obviously he doesn't use it in a negative way, right? 00:05:50.000 |
How is that different than us saying, "I seek my own glory?" 00:05:58.600 |
He's the only one with the right to seek his own glory. 00:05:59.600 |
He's the spirit of all creation, whereas God is the creator and everything he sees is made 00:06:16.180 |
We can't, again, even the word glorify, like glorify to us means to exaggerate. 00:06:24.520 |
We take something and we exaggerate something, "oh, you're glorifying whatever it is." 00:06:28.560 |
But to glorify God simply means to present him as he is, right? 00:06:33.240 |
And no matter what we do, no matter what we say, we would never exaggerate who he is. 00:06:41.980 |
Everything is made by him and for him, right? 00:06:45.900 |
So when he says he seeks his own glory, you know when Jesus says that he has no one else 00:06:50.240 |
to make a promise, you know, nothing greater to promise than himself, when he says God 00:07:01.760 |
In other words, there's nothing greater than him. 00:07:04.400 |
There's nothing above him that he can say, "I, you know, my promise or my conviction 00:07:08.800 |
or covenant is based on anything else but him." 00:07:11.620 |
So what does it mean for him to seek his glory? 00:07:15.440 |
If life comes from him, if Zoe comes from him, if Sabbath comes from him, what does 00:07:23.880 |
Life, rest, security, safety, love, all of that, when he is glorified, we are loved, 00:07:38.580 |
So when he is exalted, we live because we're connected to that, right? 00:07:44.940 |
So he, who he is, is not based upon me or you, right? 00:07:50.560 |
His grace and mercy is not based upon who you are, it's based upon who he is, first 00:07:57.700 |
So that's why his promises are sure, because his promises and his nature does not fluctuate 00:08:10.400 |
I don't know if, I hope that makes some sense, right? 00:08:13.720 |
Because this is at the core of salvation, this is the core of human history, right? 00:08:20.460 |
So anytime we take what belongs to him and we step in those shoes, we mess everything 00:08:43.580 |
He's the Alpha and Omega, he's the beginning and the end, right? 00:08:54.460 |
He says, he's saying this is the nation of Israel because he's prophesying to Israel 00:08:59.860 |
that trials are going to come, the Babylonians are going to come, they're going to suppress 00:09:03.340 |
you, the women are going to become widows, but in the end he says, "But I am the beginning 00:09:10.720 |
So he's trying to encourage them in the context of turmoil that he is still sovereign, right? 00:09:16.280 |
Not only when the remnants return, but even in the context of turmoil, that God is the 00:09:27.780 |
And clearly, verse 14 and 15 is in reference to the Messiah that's coming, and the call 00:09:42.000 |
So you see that over and over again in chapter 48, 49, right? 00:09:56.000 |
So again, whenever Jesus says something that is very, very important, he says, "Verily, 00:10:01.400 |
verily, I say to you," or he would repeat something, right? 00:10:04.560 |
Here he's about to say something really important, so he says, "Gather, come along, listen carefully." 00:10:09.640 |
And he's saying all of this is because he's preparing to get into the Messianic prophecies. 00:10:15.000 |
He's been talking about it, but he's going to go heavy into it, and he's going to go 00:10:18.480 |
And that's going to lead us to chapter 53, okay? 00:10:32.640 |
I'm going to teach you that obedience is profit. 00:10:37.120 |
It's going to lead to peace, and ultimately God's blessing." 00:10:40.360 |
Again, I want to take a few minutes to look at chapter 49, this first section, and the 00:10:59.320 |
rest of it we're going to go by pretty quick, okay? 00:11:04.800 |
So if you look at chapter 49, he just called everybody, "Come and listen, come and listen. 00:11:08.760 |
I'm going to teach you something new that's going to happen," right? 00:11:12.000 |
So over and over again at the end of chapter 48, he's gathering, "Listen, listen, listen. 00:11:17.680 |
Something new's going to happen, something new's going to happen." 00:11:19.620 |
And then chapter 49, again, starts with, "Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you 00:11:25.480 |
The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. 00:11:36.160 |
So, right, he's talking about the coming Messiah. 00:11:54.160 |
So if this is about the Messiah, what is he saying about the Messiah? 00:12:07.880 |
He's from the mother's womb, the body of my mother. 00:12:13.880 |
Again, this is in reference to the Messiah being a human birth. 00:12:20.400 |
And he also says in verse 4, right, he said, "And he said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel, 00:12:27.200 |
Remember when Jesus is going to the cross, and he says, "It is time to glorify your son, 00:12:35.960 |
So again, these are very specific prophecies about Christ. 00:12:38.960 |
And if you look at verse 4, "But I said, 'I have labored in vain.'" 00:12:47.000 |
I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity." 00:12:52.280 |
It wasn't just the leaders who rejected him, right? 00:12:58.040 |
And then it culminated of the leaders rejecting him. 00:13:00.960 |
So where does the—and if you go to his ministry, like, you know, we always talk about Jesus 00:13:09.640 |
That's why he was there for three years, right? 00:13:13.240 |
There's something more obvious than the discipling of the disciples what characterizes three 00:13:23.560 |
It was a systematic rejection of the Messiah. 00:13:26.640 |
Remember, at the beginning of his ministry, he goes to the temple, cleanses. 00:13:34.080 |
When he comes to Jerusalem, he basically inaugurates his ministry after the baptism and after the 00:13:41.120 |
He goes to Jerusalem, he cleanses the temple, and then he goes back, on the way back, right, 00:13:46.280 |
he goes through Samaria, and then where does he go? 00:13:49.040 |
When he goes back home, what's the first place he goes to? 00:14:02.320 |
They try to throw him off a cliff, right, because he basically rebukes them, right? 00:14:12.240 |
And then he says, "You know, you're just like your fathers," right? 00:14:17.000 |
"Oh, there you speak to us," and then they reject him. 00:14:19.080 |
And then after his rejection, he begins to that, what do you call it? 00:14:24.360 |
The, not Trinity, the triangle, yes, evangelical triangle. 00:14:39.940 |
That those three cities are where he basically does majority of his ministry. 00:14:43.900 |
At the end of a year and a half to two years of ministry there, how does that end? 00:15:02.220 |
At the end of the chapter, they said they turn away from him. 00:15:08.720 |
And then he gets into Jerusalem, and then he gets to Jerusalem second time. 00:15:14.540 |
So if you look at the three years of ministry, it was rejection from home, rejection from 00:15:18.840 |
the three cities that he spent most of the ministry, and then ultimately rejection from 00:15:24.240 |
So why, if you were to look at it humanly speaking, his ministry was utter failure, 00:15:28.960 |
because at the end of it, they crucified him, okay, humanly speaking, right? 00:15:34.720 |
So remember we talked about Jesus came and basically he's turning off the light in Israel. 00:15:45.600 |
What could Israel be more guilty of than anything else? 00:15:51.240 |
Not only do they not, you know, not only do they not obey the commandments, but remember 00:15:57.480 |
Jesus gives a parable about the vineyard, and he sends his son, and says, "Hey, let's 00:16:04.880 |
So basically Israel's sin has reached its pinnacle. 00:16:10.400 |
So when Jesus goes to the cross, he's not going to the cross with people saying, "Don't 00:16:16.000 |
He's going to the cross with a nation that he's trying to save when he says, "He demonstrates 00:16:19.640 |
his own love toward us while we were yet sinners." 00:16:22.200 |
And when he says, "While we were yet sinners," we're talking about his own people that he 00:16:26.000 |
loved and cared for, that all this description that he's giving, that those are the people 00:16:34.360 |
So, in verse 4, "But I said, 'I have labored in vain. 00:16:37.280 |
I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. 00:16:41.280 |
"Despite all of that, despite their rejection, 'yet surely my right is with the Lord, and 00:16:47.520 |
That even in the midst of utter human failure, in the midst of all this darkness, God is 00:17:00.480 |
So again, he's giving glimpses, like, "This is what's going to happen, this is what's 00:17:04.120 |
And this is all embedded in Scripture, before it ever happens. 00:17:07.600 |
I don't know how they would have understood that. 00:17:16.680 |
You know, like this, I'm sure, like, us looking in retrospect, like, we see clearly, if, clearly 00:17:24.440 |
he's talking about the Messiah, and then now that we identify this is the Messiah, even 00:17:29.040 |
the aspect where he says, "In the shadow of," is he, I don't know. 00:17:38.320 |
There's a part here, um, where's the part he says, "I have," where he talks about his 00:17:58.000 |
I don't know, I'm not going to sharpen the shadow, is he? 00:30:02.000 |
second part of the last stretch when we finishing up idea that part is really 00:30:06.080 |
kind of like a crescendo you know where he's like this is the Messiah he's 00:30:10.400 |
coming okay so again we'll start with the review for the first session and 00:30:15.540 |
then we'll finish up the Book of Isaiah the next session 00:30:18.560 |
okay alright you guys can take some time to discuss