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Key Text: Isaiah 49:24-26 (RSV)
V24- Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
V25-Surely, thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you and I will save your children.
V26- I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
I strongly believe that the way we live is a consequence of the size of our God.
The problem many of us have is that our God is too small. We are not convinced that we are absolutely safe in the hands of a fully competent, all-knowing, all-mighty and ever-present God.
We live in a constant state of fear and anxiety because everything depends on us.
When human beings shrink God, they offer prayer without faith, work without passion, service without joy, suffering without hope. It results in fear, retreat, loss of vision and failure to persevere.
God has announced His plan to use Cyrus of Persia as His instrument to save Israel from the Babylonian captivity. Israel cannot believe such message. They want their own king, not a Persian king. God has to listen to their arguments and show them that His way may be mysterious but is best for them as He calls them to trust Him, become His servant and join His mission.
Here we see Israel downsizing their God because of their excruciating pain under the hands of their captors and tyrant. They’d rather sit and scream, “God has forgotten us” and not see that their God is still God.
This morning, I would like to capture your attention to the Almightiness of our God. I want to remind you that God is still God, no matter how helpless and oppressed you may be in your situation now. My message this morning is ‘YOU ARE GOD’.
Billy Graham tells of his friend facing an impossible situation. The man stood on the top of a mountain looking down into the beautiful valley below. As he viewed the terrain, a frightening reality grabbed him. A car was coming around the mountain on his left. Another was coming on his right. Not able to see or sense each other’s presence, they were on a collision course. Then with horror he saw a third car enter the picture, passing the car on his left as they both entered a blind curve. Dr Graham’s friend shouted a warning from his perch high above the traffic scene, but of course, no one could hear him. The ensuing crash was fatal; several people died. His friend knew what was coming but had no power to deliver the people from their danger.
Isaiah here tells of two nations on a crash course with disaster – Babylonian and Israel. God has a word for each of them. He calls one to lamentation, the other to salvation. The words are different, because the recipients are different. We listen to these words to see which message applies to us. Which nation are you most like? Which word from God applies to you?
(I) Lamenting Babylonians
God’s people spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity complaining of all that had befallen them. God turned the tables. He announced it was time for the captors to complain. He described precisely how they were to carry out the lamentation rites (v1-3). They would be taken captive, thus losing their throne and all their power over other people. They would suffer what they had caused others to suffer and experience the shame they had brought to others. How could this happen? God would take vengeance.
Power lay not with Babylonia but with the Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts. God, while he was angry with his people, had used Babylonia for his purpose – to punish Israel. But Babylonia had gone too far. They showed them no mercy, not even for the aged. Now he would use Cyrus to punish Babylonia and rescue his people. He would take away Babylonia’s claim to be queen of kingdoms. They needed to reflect a bit more and take God into the picture.
Babylonia had become proud and secure, claiming to be the only world power. The title, however, belonged to God alone. Babylonia forgot that only God is God. Babylonia thought she had the secret to success. She had developed a complex and comprehensive system of finding the will of gods through various kinds of priests, prophets, astrologers, diviners and sorcerers. They thought they could determine the future from the stars, the lives of the animals and contact with the dead – almost every way imaginable. God brought them up short. They had forgotten the one way to the future. They trusted wickedness rather than the way of the one true God. In spite of the great reputation of their various kinds of prophets and of their great wise counselors, they had to prepare for lamentation and mourning. It was the God of Israel, not the wise men of Babylonia, who controlled the destiny of history. God is God. God promised disaster and Babylonia had no countermeasure.
Application
In our lives, God will use a Babylonian like Nebuchadnezzar to deal with us when we are rebellious and wayward like the nation of Israel. Our Nebuchadnezzar will put us under his captivity. He will “devour us; make us an empty vessel; swallow us like a monster; fill his belly with our delicacies and rinse you out” (Jer 51:34). BUT, this captivity and oppression under our Nebuchadnezzar are destined by God to be for only a specified season and if our Nebuchadnezzar becomes ruthless and extended the period of captivity and oppression beyond the set time of God, God will step in and heap upon him all the pain and troubles he heaps upon us. Your Nebuchadnezzar will be mourning and lamenting against life just as we see in Isaiah 49: 1-15.
E.g.
During my morning devotion on 3 December 2010, I read something very enlightening in Jeremiah 34:8-20. It is about the covenant Zedekiah had made with all the people in Jerusalem before God to make a proclamation of liberty to all the Hebrew slaves, male and female. In verse 14 it says, “At the end of six years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you MUST SET HIM FREE FROM YOUR SERVICE.” Jeremiah described that when the covenant was made, all the princes and all the people obeyed and they set their slaves free. “But afterward they TURNED AROUND and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into SUBJECTION as slaves” (Verse 11). This infuriated the Lord because the set time for slavery or captivity is only for 6 years. So the Lord declared against them, “You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female salves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves. Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, says the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth…and I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives.” (v15-17,20).
God sometimes uses the enemies or even people of God (like the princes and rulers of Israel) to rule over us and to ride over us as our master and like slaves, we have to be subject to them but the specified time of slavery is 6 years and if our “earthly master” refuses to proclaim liberty to set us free by the 7th year, but still persisted in subjugating the people of God, the Lord will come in to curse them with sword, pestilence, famine and subjection to their own enemies.
Brothers and sisters, our mighty captor and tyrant, Satan, can only oppress and rule over us for a specified period of time. But once the specified period of time is up which is 7 years or 70 years (for Israel’s case), your captor, Satan must let you go. If not, the Lord will take up your case and enter into judgment with Satan and your enemies. That is good news for the children of God.
Application
How long have you been a pretty to the mighty one of your life? How long have you been a captive to a tyrant of your life? Who is the mighty one of your life today who holds you as a prey? Who is the tyrant of your life who keeps you like a prisoner or captive? Who is your Nebuchadnezzar today? The set period by God is only 7 years and if this oppression exceeds this set period, you will see God intervening as your God against your captor. You will literally witness your tyrant and captor weeping and lamenting about life.
(II) The Combative Captive, Israel
God called Babylonia to lament because they had trusted in magic and astrology. On the other hand, God gave Israel new promises for their deliverance. Then God gave the marching orders: LEAVE BABYLON. Suddenly God’s servant (which is a foreshadow of Jesus Christ) gave his testimony. God expanded Israel’s commission from witnessing to being a light for the nations. God would bring his people back to their homeland.
Israel wasn’t satisfied. She continued to argue and God continued to answer. It seemed like an impossible dream for an exiled people so ABHORRED and DESPISED to achieve the position described for servant Israel. But the Holy One was also the Redeemer, faithful to his promises and purposes. He had chosen Israel. She could not fail.
God spelled out his marching orders. Get out of hiding from the nations and march through the wilderness where God would protect you and provide. Along the march, Israel had a hymn to sing, praising God for his comfort and compassion. But the people could not get caught up in the prophet’s exciting good news. They still preferred to see God in a diminished view. They still preferred to combat and argue with God. They wanted to stick to the fact: THE LORD HAS FORSAKEN US, THE LORD HAS FORGOTTEN US. The exiles wanted God to explain their miserable fate of captivity and oppression.
Again God had the answer. God had more love for Zion than the most deeply devoted mother. God was the divine architect, who had written the plans for His city on his own hands where He could never lose them. God assured Israel that He would never forget them because their walls were ever before Him. Then God went on to assure that how He was still a God to them.
Yes, God put up with pitiful complaints of his people to perfect his plan. He wanted to reveal His person and His a nature not just to Israel but to the whole world. Israel was content to continue questioning God. God would never forget Israel but Israel so quickly forgot what God had done for them. They no longer trusted him to fulfill his promises. They no longer believed He is the only God. They no longer expected God’s deliverance and salvation.
Application
Who is God? That is the basic question life comes down to. The answer comes from experience and trust. Have you become hardened like Israel until you have come to believe that God has forsaken and forgotten you? Or will you listen as He proclaims his love and care for you? Do you believe God is still your Lord, your Savior, and your Redeemer? Do you still believe He still has a plan to defeat your enemies and bring you back to Himself? Yes, God has a plan and a mission for you. He loves you too much to forget you. He waits for you to come back to him and again be his witness, his light to the nations. Do you have faith to come back? Or are you too busy questioning God?
(II) How God is God to Captive Israel
1. God Delivers Them
V24- Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
V25-Surely, thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you and I will save your children.
Isaiah had been giving to the oppressed captive the glorious promises of God’s deliverance but he was met by the difficulty of their inability to believe that those promises could be fulfilled. The news seemed too good to be true. There was great strength of the Babylonian empire and their unbelief argues, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?” It was a known fact that they were a conquered people and that their enemies according to the usages of war, had an accredited right to hold them in subjection. “Shall the lawful captive be delivered? (KJV verse 24).
Notice how God shows Himself to be God to them. “Surely, thus says the Lord” (v 25)- Hopeless as the situation may seem to you, all the difficulties shall give way when God interposes, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away” (KJV v 25). God declared to the children of Israel, “Though Babylon is a strong and powerful nation, yet will I rescue you from their hands, for I will oppose My strength and wisdom to theirs and the resources of My providence to all their pride and power. I myself as God will come down into the battlefield as your champion.”
Application
This verse speaks of the victory over the terrible enemy of our lives, the devil by the Righteous One, Christ. Israel here is presented here as the prey, the captive of Satan. Satan is the prince of this world who not only deceives and blinds all the nations but also and particularly keeps Israel as his captive. Satan is the strong one and here is called the mighty, the tyrant (RSV) the terrible (KJV), the vehement one, the fierce one (NIV), since he is as the great head of his band of robbers has in fact all of Israel and all the entire world and even the corpses of believers in his power, for his is the power of death. Who is stronger than he who can penetrate the fortress of this head of a band of robbers and take away his vessels, his armor and prey? No one else is capable of doing this but our Lord Jesus Christ. He will come again to destroy the works of the devil and to capture Satan as the arch-criminal, to bind him and to lock him up in an impenetrable prison.
Christ has the power to deliver us from our mighty and fierce tyrant because He has already paid the price of redemption by His death on the cross. The very idea of “redemption” means “the buying back again of lost and forfeited goods, by a compensative arrangement between the parties.” In ancient times the lives of prisoners taken in war were held to be at the disposal of the conqueror, and the acceptance of a stipulated ransom was the established mode of buying back the lives and liberty of the prisoners. The law of God, with all the forces of the universe behind it, must be in the end the conqueror of all who rebel against it, and in the Gospel we are told that the ransom-price was the death of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us and suffered in our stead. The ransom was sufficient.
To the question of Israel, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?”…God answers:
- I was the God who delivered you from tyranny of Egyptian
- I am the God who delivers you from the captivity in Babylon.
- I will be the God who delivers man from the power of sin through my Son, Jesus Christ on the Cross.
- I will still continue to be the God who delivers sinners by the preaching of the Gospel.
- I will ultimately be the only one God who can deliver you from the power of death by the return of Great Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the second time.
2. God Saves Their Children
V25-…and I will save your children.
Here, see how fully God can make good His promises and disperse the worst fears of His people. The Lord can clear the darkest skies. And He does it with as much tenderness as power. The captives feared more for their beloved families than for themselves, as you do for yours and the promise respects them: “And I will save your children.”
3. God Contends for Them
v25-for I will contend with those who contend with you………..
V26- I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. …….
God would contend with those who contended with Israel. He promised to make the ruin of the foes conspicuous as the deliverance of His friends. “I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine). In other words God would cause them to destroy one another with as much eagerness as half-famished men fall upon a well-furnished table; they shall hasten to that banquet of blood with as much fervor as men hasten to a banquet of wine. The historian tells us that on the night in which Babylon was taken, many of the Chaldeans fell off from Belshazzar and joined the army of Cyrus; they became traitors and were the first to lead the attack against their own nation. They showed the way into the king’s palace where they slew him and all his attendants. Thus the promise of the text was fulfilled by the overthrow of the reigning government and the introduction of a new dynasty to the throne. So completely was this done, that the captives were as much overpowered by the greatness of their deliverance as they had before been confounded by the depth of the calamity.
When God promises that He would contend with those who contended with Israel, it implies that He will forcibly free them, deliver then and save them. Violence will be required because these tyrants respond only to violence.
E.g.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s, all efforts at diplomacy failed to move the Soviet dictator. Not until President Kennedy stood eyeball-to-eyeball with Khrushchev and matched him missile for missile did the dictator back down.
Envisioning a similar showdown between God and the tyrants holding His people captive, we are told that the “terrible/tyrant” will suffer the same consequences of violence that they have wrought on God’s children. After Jerusalem had been besieged and sacked by the Babylonians, the survivors became so desperate and deranged that they ate their own children. As revolting as it may be, God will make the plight of the tyrants so desperate that they too will become cannibals, eating human flesh and drinking human blood. But before we condemn the barbarians of the past, we need to read a twentieth-century newspaper. Just the other day a press release told of cannibalism among the tyrants in Red China who ate their enemies, not because they were starved but as a show of vengeance. Sinful human beings, whether in the 6th century or the 20th century are capable of sub-human acts.
(IV) Outcome
V26- Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
God only has one purpose in the overthrow of tyrants. He wants to free his people so that “All flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
By delivering you from your captivity and oppression, you and other people will realize that Your God is:
- The Lord – He is Adonai- He is still the king of your situation. He is still in charge of your life and every event following it.
- Your Savior – He is the one who knows how to save you and rescue your children.
- Your Redeemer – He is the one who has bought you back from the slavery to Satan and your oppressor. He knows how to buy back your seemingly hopeless and painful situation.
- The Mighty One – He is God, the Mighty One – having the power and the might to turn things around and above all, to fulfill all His promises to you.
Conclusion
Ruth Bell Graham remembers the evening her husband, Billy Graham came home from a trip with another surprise toy for the children – a small puppet on the end of a stick. The children took the puppet and did everything with it except use it as a puppet. They kicked it, threw it, and played ball with it. Soon the poor puppet was tied in knots and no longer fit to play with. Ruth Graham had to hang it up by its hook to a nail in the fireplace mantel. Slowly, painstakingly, she untangled one knot and then the next. Finally, the strings were in order gain, and the puppet was ready for the children to play with.
Israel thought they were a lot like that puppet. Life had battered and bruised them. As God’s chosen people, they were supposed to stay safe and secure. Instead, they found themselves all tangled in knots, living away from their chosen homeland and forsaken by their God. They needed someone with patience to straighten them out so they could be useful again. God reached down to do just what they needed. Israel cried, “Oh, no! You can’t do that. You don’t know how. You let us down in the first place. Don’t try to come back and take over now.”
Patiently, God looked down and said, “But I created you; I am your parent. I am the only one who can help you. I have a plan to restore you, renew you, save you.
Do you share Israel’s feelings of being abused, oppressed and forgotten? Do you think you are a puppet that is being misused by the world and people? Are you willing to let God untangle your strings, put you back together and then pull your strings so you can accomplish what He has planed for you? God wants to save you, restore you. He wants to use you meaningfully in His mission. He waits for you to quit complaining, stop your questioning and start listening for his instructions. He is God.
End of Sermon
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