Isaiah 50 How God Grows Our Faith Series

Isaiah 50

How God Grows Our Faith

Does God Care? vs. 1-3

Grow by Experience vs. 4-9

Walk in the Light vs. 10-11

Intro:

Todd Adams

Isaiah 50 continues the servant series

in this section we get such a rich description of Jesus Christ

There are four servant songs

They are called that because “The Servant” is singing them to God the Father

Last week we saw the second of four servant songs

In that song we saw his calling from the womb and that he would be a light to the nations

This week we see the third song

These songs sing the praises of who Christ will become and gives us amazing detail on his life

it contrasts all of the trivial data that we get bombarded with on a daily basis

Think about all then useless information that floats in your head

On Friday while taking my kids to school my son was relaying to information to me about snakes

He said; “Dad, did you know the King Cobra can grow to 50 feet long and that they are good swimmers?”

“No I didn’t thats good to know

“Did you know that the Mozambique Spitting Snake can spit venom up to 20 feet and if it gets in your eyes you can go blind?”

“I will definitely remember that next time I am in Mozambique”

For the next hour I was trying to get snakes out of my head

We can often treat the Bible as a lot of trivial information and miss some really special

Isaiah 50 is one of those chapters where it would be easy to read over and miss the significance

Read Isaiah 50:1-6

Transition:

There are two ways our faith is grown

First it is thru difficult trials

Second our faith is grown thru our day in day out devotions

In this song we see God reveal to us the source of Christ’s strength

Sure it comes from God, His Father, but Isaiah 50 shows us how he tapped into that

We see how Jesus walked by faith

We see his morning devotion time

How he got away with God and tuned his tongue and his ears to be in sync

We also see how he purposely took the abuse from others

This was all made possible through his daily time with the Lord

Vs. 4 tells us that Morning by Morning he awakens

Even though Christ was fully God he was also fully man and he needed to go to His father everyday to receive what he needed to get through the day

There are some great lessons for us to learn here

1. Does God Care? Vs. 1-3

The chapter starts our with God answering a very important question

Does God care about me?

I think all of us have asked that question multiple times

The Jews are asking that very same thing

They are in captivity and complaining that God has abandoned them

They are looking around and the options don’t look too good

So they are looking to God and asking where he went

Did he leave them or cast them off?

God answers in some very strong language

Vs. 1 Where is the certificate of divorce?

So God asks them “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce?”

When God uses the term mother he is referring to Israel

To divorce someone you had to issue a certificate of divorce

So God is asking where is the certificate that I issued you?

Basically he is telling them “I wasn’t the one who left you, you left me.”

He hits on the major theme of Israel forsaking God to worship other idols

Many times the reason God doesn't seem near is because we have rushed off to serve other idols

Then he switches the metaphor to debt: “Who did I sell you to for your debt?”

So God is bringing it around to the reason they are in captivity in the first place

It was because if Israel’s sin

For your transgressions your were sent away

There comes a time when you need to face up to your sin and deal with it

Many people aren’t living the life they want for Christ because of sin

God wants us to get right and get going

Vs. 2b Is my hand shortened?

Here is an interesting line

“Is my hand shortened?”

The Jews loved to use the picture of God stretching his hand out to help them

There is even a famous picture hanging in the sistine chapel with this image

In the creation of Adam by Michelangelo we see God reaching from Heaven to tough Adam’s hand

"You stretched forth Your hand from above and drew my soul from the dark abyss.” Augustine of Hippo

So God is using this to remind the Jews he hasn’t pulled back his hand from them