Dwell in the Word: Isaiah 41:1-20
Think on these questions as you dwell in Isaiah 41:1-20:
1. In Isaiah 41:8-10, God reassures His people that they are His chosen ones and that He will uphold and strengthen them. How does the concept of God's friendship with His people impact their sense of security and fearlessness?
2. The passage emphasizes that God is the one who takes action to restore His people from barrenness and wilderness. What is the significance of God's initiative in the restoration process, and how does this apply to the spiritual lives of believers today?
3. Isaiah 41:20 suggests that the purpose of God's restoration and faithfulness to His people is to provide a witness to the world. How can the faithfulness of God's people serve as a testimony to others, and what role do Christians play in reflecting God's faithfulness to the world?
Transcript:
As we've been reading the Book of Isaiah, the words of judgment have been going out abundantly, right? But now God is making it clear that He preserves His people, that He is there for His people, and that He is the one who rescues them. We see this very clearly in verses 8-10, But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham, my friend. Despite all this judgment that has been happening, God is reminding them of the covenant and the fact that they are his friends, that he has been near to them, that He does this for their benefit, that He keeps them and he chastises them. Hes disciplined them, disciplines them to keep them as a people set apart for Himself. And notice the language that continues, You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corner saying to you, you are my servant. You're different. You're my people. I have chosen you and not cast you off. ' And so what is the result of this? He's telling them in the midst of all of this, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. God is doing all of this for His people. This is what He's doing. He has done all these things for them. He is going to continue to them up. He has brought them to Himself. He is not casting them away because he is done with them or getting rid of them. He is a covenant God. He is going to keep His people. This is what the God of the Bible does. This is what the God who is the God over all the earth, this God who has saved us does. We see this, this continued message to not fear. Verse 13, For I, the Lord your God, hold your right-hand. In other words, he is near to them. He's close to them. He is guiding them. It is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I am the one who helps you. ' In the midst of all this, you need help, and you're not going to be able to do this on your own. You are going to need me. I am the one who helps you. And so as this passage closes up here, we see this ramped up that it is continually driven home that God is the one that does this.
At the end of verse 17 here we see, I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bear heights. I will make the wilderness a pool of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar. I will set in the desert the Cyprus. You get the idea here. God is the one who is restoring them. Now, remember, this is not exactly that God is going to change the landscape of the land. The idea is that they have become barren, that they are in the wilderness of their sin, and that God is going to restore them. This imagery of this prophetic language of restoration is God doing it. So where things were barren for them, they are now going to be overflowing with life. You get the idea here. Notice it doesn't say, Hey, if you get things right, you're going to be able to get this going here on your own. That's not what happens. God is the one that does this, and it's for a purpose. We see this in verse 20 that they may see and know, may consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this.
The holy one of Israel has created it. God is the one who has done this. God is the one who restores His people. God is the one who brings them back. He is the one who does all of this. As we think about this passage for us, this is really good stuff, isn't it? Like I've said many times, we've had so much language of judgment in the Book of Isaiah. It's all pointing to this type of stuff at the end of the day, as harsh as the judgment is, that happens so we can see this, so that in the midst of all these things that happen in the world, we can have the confidence that we should not fear because God is keeping His people. He has brought us to Himself, and He is not going to let us go. He is going to keep us. We can have confidence. And if He is the one who creates this faith in us, who gives us this gift of faith, then He isn't going to cast us out. No, He is going to keep us. And so may our lives be a reflection here to the world of verse 20.
May the faithfulness of God to us help the world to see and know that they may consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this great thing in our lives. The holy one of Israel has created faith in us. And so may our lives bring glory to Christ that this message might go out into the world.
