Listen, To Receive God's Best (Isaiah 48:1-22)

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Listen, To Receive God's Best (Isaiah 48:1-22) Series

Contributed by Garrett Tyson on Sep 5, 2024 (message contributor)

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Scripture: Isaiah 48:1-22

Summary: God's people have failed to listen once, and missed God's best. God here gives them a second chance, letting them know He's not angry despite their idolatry.

One of the hardest things to do in the entire world, is to listen when someone gives you good advice. Listening requires a lot from you. It requires an openness to unpleasant possibilities-- the possibility that you're wrong, that you don't know everything, that someone else knows more than you, that there is an easier and better path forward than the one you're taking. I remember one time at [my place of employment], I had done something in a particular way for over a decade, and a fairly new coworker let me know there was a trick to doing it better, and faster. I found myself responding by being kind of upset, and thinking about how I'd been doing this 12 years, and knew what I was doing. I managed to keep my mouth shut, except to thank him, and then I tried doing it his way. He was right. It was better, and faster. It was good advice-- but hard for me to take.

In the first 9 chapters in the book of Proverbs, we hear the words of a dad, instructing his son in how to live a successful, prosperous life. There are many lessons this dad wants to pass down to his son, to give him this, but the starting point for all of it, is that the son needs to be willing to listen, and to heed that advice.

Listening to advice is hard. And actually using that advice, and turning into something profitable, is even harder. Iron sharpens iron, but it's unpleasant when you're the one being sharpened (it's also unpleasant being the prophet or teacher or friend who is trying to do the sharpening, and we will actually see that next week in Isaiah 49).

What we've seen in our series on Isaiah 40-55, over and over, is that God's people refuse to be sharpened. They refuse to listen to God's prophet. The prophet has given oracle after oracle. There have been lots of fresh words from God (anticipating Isaiah 50:4). And the people have responded by changing nothing. Shockingly, they still are hanging on to their literal idols (Isaiah 48:5, most obviously). They refuse to change their perspective, and see their situation from God's eyes instead. And they refuse to believe that God is working through Cyrus to help them.

Our passage today is best understood as one last call from God, encouraging his people to listen. And, at the risk of giving spoilers, I'll just say that this call is not one that Israel immediately heeds. Next chapter, we will see God pivot, and change his approach (for a second time), in an effort to overcome his people's stiff-necks, and bronze foreheads. But this pivot comes at a cost to God's people. When you don't listen, you don't get God's best. You don't prosper.

Before we dive in, I should probably say that this is a big, complicated passage. There's a lot of debate about how it all fits together, and I'm probably not going to get everything quite right. But as we work through our passage, try to focus on two main themes. The first, is the idea of "listening." That's a thread that runs through the whole passage, and probably the one thing we need to hear most today. The verb to listen is found like 11 or 12 times. So listen for that-- it shouldn't be hard-- and as you listen, let me just encourage you to consider how well you listen to (1) God, (2) to God's Holy Spirit, and particularly, (3) how well you listen to the people God has sent to teach you his way. Listening is hard.

The second thing I want you to try to focus on is the contrast between what God has said and done in the past, and the new thing that God is now announcing, and now doing. In essence, God is telling his exiled people, "You've failed to listen to me, and trust me, all along. You blew it, and you've made life harder than it needs to be for you. Now, though, I'm giving you a second chance to listen."

Let's start by reading verses 1-2. God, through his prophet, calls his people to listen, and He then describes them in a lengthy, complicated way:

(1) Listen [to] this, House of Jacob!, [Hosea 12:3-4?; Jeremiah 9:4?]

The ones called/identified by the name of Israel [Isaiah 43:1],

while from the waters of Judah they have come out; (Psalm 68:27?; Genesis 38? ambiguity?)

The ones swearing oaths in/by the name of Yahweh (Deut. 6:13),

while the God/Elohim of Israel they mention (Gen. 40:14; Ps. 87:4)/invoke (Psalm 20:8; 1 Chr. 16:4; Joshua 23:7)--

not with faithfulness (Genesis 4:27),

and not with righteousness; [Isaiah 58:2]

(2) Surely, after the holy city (=Jerusalem) they are called, (Isaiah 43:7)

while upon the God/Elohim of Israel they lean (Psalm 71:6; 2 Chr. 32:8);

Yahweh of Armies [is] his name:

In God's opening call to "listen," we see God drawing attention to the ambiguous nature of his own people (and for those following in English translations, the NIV is much better than the NRSV here, largely because of its better understanding of the "ki" opening verse 2-- "surely," not "because"). They swear oaths in the name of Yahweh, as they should. The God of Israel is God who is on their lips. That's who they talk about, as they should. They are identified with Jerusalem, God's holy city (multiple commentators say this is the oldest mention of Jerusalem as God's holy city in the Bible, fyi). All of them have spent their entire lives in Babylon, but they still view their home as Israel, and Jerusalem. And they lean upon the God of Israel, as they should.

If this was one of the seven churches in Revelation, Jesus would find some positive things to say about them.

But there are two things that God holds against them. They do these things, end of verse 1, not with faithfulness, and not with righteousness. There's something about the way they are committing themselves to God that's inadequate, that's unfaithful. And there's something about the way they treat each other, probably [I think "righteousness" tends to be horizontal, concrete ways of loving each other; Isaiah 58:2], that's unrighteous.

So there's some ambiguity to God's people. And that's probably part of why God opens by connecting his people to Jacob, and to Judah. [I think it's John Goldingay who cleverly remarks that God's people were better at being Jacob than they were at being Israel]. Jacob was a trickster, the conniver, the one who was always grasping for more, whose entire life was a struggle with God and people (Hosea 12:3-4). And to come from the waters of Judah, is a reminder that some of Judah's descendants came from a sexual encounter with his daughter-in-law Tamar, after Judah had failed to act with "righteousness" (Genesis 38:26) toward her by giving her his son.

If you were part of God's people, and God was talking about you in connection with your family tree, you'd be happier to hear God make sure to include Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) or Isaac. The closest modern parallel, would be if God was talking to his people in Australia, and He subtly reminded them that they were descendants of criminals, exiled from England.

So God, through his prophet, opens with a call to hear, that at the same time invites them to reflect on their own flawed, and ambiguous, allegiance to God. And now, starting in verse 3, He gives them the content of this new message. I'll read through the first half of verse 6:

(3) The former things, in the past (v. 5, 7, 8) I declared, ["in the past" is focused]

while from my mouth they went out,

and I caused them to hear.

Suddenly, I acted, ["Suddenly" feels focused, but one could argue it's a temporal frame]

and they happened,

(4) because I know that hard (1 Samuel 20:10; 25:3)/difficult/stubborn (Ex. 32:9; 33:3, 5; Deut. 31:27), you

[are],

while sinews of iron, your neck [has],

while your forehead [is] bronze.

5) and I declared to you in the past; (v. 3, 7, 8)

they happened; [Isaiah 42:9]

I caused you to hear,

lest you say "My image did them,"

and "My idol and my cast idol commanded them."

(6) You heard!

See all of it!,

and will you not declare [it]?

Earlier in Isaiah 40-55, Yahweh foretold what He was going to do through Cyrus, for his people, as a way of proving that He ruled above all the gods (Isaiah 41:21–24; 42:8–9; 43:9–10; 46:9–11; *Shalom Paul). It was a way of showing that Yahweh is God Most High.

Here, we see that God had a second reason for foretelling what He was going to do. God knew that his people were stubbornly committed to their idols. Any time something happened to them for the good, God knew that their reflex was to give credit to their idols. Verse 5: "My image did them; my idol commanded them." God reasons, that if the people are told ahead of time by his prophet, that they will have a harder time dodging the truth about Him. It's hard for his people to claim all of this is from their idols, when Yahweh has been telling them all along about his plan.

And so, we find our answer to the question of how Israel has been unfaithful. They are literally keeping idols in their houses. The name of Yahweh may be on their lips, but it's not His name alone.

So what we see, in verse 3, is that God foretold things through his prophet, and at this point in Isaiah, some of those things have happened.

Let me rabbit trail here for just a minute. This, for me, is one of the clearest bits of proof that God's prophet throughout these chapters isn't the original eighth century B.C. Isaiah. At a minimum, there is a second prophet, who has been proclaiming God's word over a period of time, and who has been trying really hard, without success, to get God's people to listen.

There's two ways to explain this. The first, is to take a movie script approach to Isaiah. With a movie, everyone involved has lines they need to memorize. They are responsible to speak those lines at the right time. A traditional approach (trying to avoid calling it a "conservative" approach) to Isaiah, argues that God gave the prophet Isaiah all of the words of these chapters, and that these words were then sealed up for several generations, probably getting passed down through Isaiah's disciples (Isaiah 8:16). Then, these words were proclaimed to God's people in Babylonian exile, when the time was right. But how were these words proclaimed, and by whom?

What we see is that all of these words weren't proclaimed at the same time. They were given in bits and pieces, and whoever spoke those words to God's people in exile needed to know which words to say, and when. When do the people get to hear that they've received double for all their sins, and that they are forgiven (Isaiah 40)? When do they get to hear God is sending a mystery dude from the east to topple Babylon? You need an exilic prophet, who God speaks to. And you need a movie script approach, where God is the director. When the people say their lines [like Isaiah 40:27], God taps his prophet on the shoulder, and says, "Now read those particular 10 verses out of this secret book." A year goes by, and God taps his prophet on the shoulder again, and says, "Now read those ones." Everyone has lines to say, and God makes sure that people-- especially his exilic prophet-- follow the script, when the time is right. The traditional approach requires two prophets, basically. And the traditional approach assumes that the exilic prophet doesn't have his own voice. He only speaks the words of the First Isaiah, when God tells him it's time to say his lines.

This traditional movie script approach to Isaiah has worked really well up until through Isaiah 47. I mean, you can make it work. But in my opinion, it starts to unravel just a little bit in Isaiah 48, and it gets really awkward starting in 49 and 50. This isn't something I'm going to push, or make a big deal out of. And if you sharply disagree, I'm not going to be really bothered, and I'm not looking to debate it. But I think what's more likely, is that God has called a new prophet (Isaiah 40:6) in Babylonian exile, and God regularly (Isaiah 50:4) gives this prophet new words to speak, in response to how God's people think and feel about God, and themselves. I think there are a few places where we hear this exilic prophet's own voice. He's not just reading ancient words out loud; he has his own new contribution. And if that all seems complicated, and confusing, it'll hopefully start to make more sense in about 5 minutes, and even more sense next week.

So in verses 3-6b, God says, "Listen, I told you everything I was going to do ahead of time, and then I did it. You've seen these words fulfilled. Won't you acknowledge this, and admit it? Won't you be faithful witnesses, and proclaim this?"

What are these words they've seen fulfilled? Again, I think they are connected to God's anointed servant Cyrus. God foretold that Cyrus would come, defeat Babylon, and bring God's people home. Some of that, at least, has officially been fulfilled.

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The specifics of what's been fulfilled are debated among scholars; I'm trying to play it safe here. It's easy to overstate this by grabbing one verse in this chapter, taking it super literally, at the expense of others. Is it actually time for them to leave Babylon (v. 20), or is this a call to be ready when the time has come? In contrast, verse 14 makes it sound like there are things Cyrus hasn't yet done. God will make his path successful, but it's still a work in progress. I think if we hold everything together, we end up talking about partial fulfillment. Some events have happened (verse 3); others regarding Cyrus are a work in progress; still others separately from all of this are now (verse 6) going to be announced for the first time.

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Starting in the middle of verse 6, God shifts his attention from his past acts, to talking about the present, and the future. God is foretelling new things:

I cause you to hear new things now,

while hidden things, and you haven't known them.

(7) Now they are created, ["now" is focused]

and not earlier,

while before today, you haven't heard them, [v. 6a; *Shalom Paul]

lest you say (v. 5b; *Shalom Paul),

"LOOK! I knew them.

(8) What's more, you haven't heard [v. 6a; 7a; *Paul].

What's more, you haven't known.

What's more, earlier, your ear wasn't opened,

because I knew (v. 7b; *Paul) you would actually betray/act treacherously (1 Samuel 14:33; Jer. 3:20),

while a rebel from the womb, you were called (Genesis 25:26?; Psalm 58:4; Hosea 12:3/4; Jeremiah 9:3

in Hebrew; "every brother actually Jacobs/betrays").

What we see in these verses, is God changing his approach. Earlier, God gave his people lots of advance notice about what He was doing, to make it hard for his people to stubbornly give credit to their idols. God's actions are like a crock pot, set in motion, taking time to cook. God gave everyone time to adjust to what He was doing, and accept it.

In verses 6-7, God is now doing a new thing, but He's basically announcing it, and doing it, in the same breath. This new thing is something they've never heard of, something they can't imagine. And God is now doing it quickly, microwave style, because God knows if He gives them time to adjust to the idea of this new thing, they will claim their idols did it.

So God had earlier given his people lots of notice, to make it harder for them to be unfaithful and give the credit to their gods. But his people used this advance warning, as a path to unfaithfulness. Now, God takes the opposite approach because of the same basic flaw in his people. God's people seem determined to rebel, but perhaps this time, they will listen, and give God the credit and the glory. God is giving them another chance to come to him, with trust, and faith, and loyalty.

Now, what is this new thing that God is doing? We know that God will do this new thing fast. But we don't know what this new thing is. Nothing in these verses tells us. But whatever this new thing is, it's truly new. It's something never heard or seen before.

Verses 9-11:

(9) For the sake of my name I will delay/control/lengthen out my anger,

while [for the sake of] my praise, I restrain toward you,

not cutting you off.

(10) LOOK! I have refined you,

while not like [in the manner of refining?] silver;

I have tested [see NET Bible] you in the furnace of misery. [Deut. 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; *Klaus Baltzer]

(11) For my sake, for my sake, I do it,

because why should it [=my name] be polluted/defiled, [Isaiah 52:5]

while my glory, to another I will not give. [Isaiah 42:8]

At this point, God has every right to be angry with his people. They are stubborn, and rebellious. They make things much harder than it ought to be, especially when God makes it as easy as possible to have faith in Him. But we see that God is super patient with his people. God is giving them a second chance, and doing new things among them despite their rebellion. God is changing how He acts, in hopes that a microwave approach will be easier to believe. And here we also see, that God is choosing to not be angry. Anger is choice-- something that you, and God, can control. And although God could certainly be angry, and no one would blame him, He chooses to stretch out his anger, and not cut his people off.

What He's been doing, instead, verse 10, is making them miserable. I'm not sure how else to put it. God has been refining them in the furnace of affliction, making their lives difficult in Babylon. Maybe this bothers some of you, but when God sends affliction, it means He's not giving up on you. God is determined, one way or another, that all of this ends with Him, and not idols, receiving glory.

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There's a lot of debate about line 2 in verse 10, and what exactly the point of the line of "not like silver" means. The Hebrew here deliberately leaves out several words, and the line is understood differently by some scholars. Many scholars think the point of this line is to say that God has refined them, but *the end result* isn't like silver (Jeremiah 6:29-30; Ezek. 22:18). I think God is saying that He's refined them, but not as you'd refine silver; He's used affliction. That to me makes more sense. Line 2 raises a question, "In what way is the refining not like silver?", and then the following parallel lines answer that question, "by using affliction rather than heat."

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At this point, we probably expect to hear what the new things are, but it turns out that we need to be a little patient. Starting in verse 12, God loops back to talking about the former things. God wants to remind his people about Cyrus, and what He foretold. And what we'll see here, again, is that God has partially (!) fulfilled his words about Cyrus, at the time these verses were spoken:

(12) Listen to me, Jacob,

while Israel, whom I have called:

I [am] He. [Isaiah 41:4; 43:10, 13; 46:4; 52:6 *Shalom Paul]

I [am the] First/Beginning.

Surely, I [am the] Last/End. [Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; *Paul]

(13) Surely, my hand laid the foundation of the earth, [Isaiah 40:21; 51:13, 16; *Paul]

while my right hand stretched/spread out the heavens.

Calling/summoning, I [am] to them; ["Calling" is focused; reinforces idea of listening, and obeying?]

They stand together.

(14) Gather/assemble, all of you, [Isaiah 43:9; 44:11; 45:20; legal imagery here]

and listen:

Who among you announced these things?

Yahweh has loved him [=Cyrus];

He will act/carry out His desire/will against Babylon, [Isaiah 44:28; 46:10; 55:11; *Paul]

while His strength/arm against the Chaldeans. [Isaiah 40:10; 51:5, 9; 52:10; *Paul]

(15) I-- I-- I have spoken.

Surely, I have called him;

I have brought him,

and He/he (MT)/I [LXX, Peshitta, Targum have "I"] will make his road successful/prosperous.

With this, we come to verse 16, which is one of the most important verses in all of Isaiah 40-55. As I read, ask yourself, who is speaking?

(16) Draw near to me;

Listen to this:

It wasn't from the beginning of all this, in secret, that I spoke;

at the time it happened, there I [was], ["there" is focused]

and now the Lord Yahweh has sent me with his Spirit. [for "me," see Isaiah 40:6; 49:1-6; 60:1]

Who is "me?" At the start of verse 16, we assume that God is the speaker. We know, on one level, that this word is coming through the prophet, but we still find ourselves thinking it's ultimately God. But by the end of verse 16, something has happened. "The Lord Yahweh has sent me with his Spirit" [Christopher Seitz was helpful in here].

Here, for one of just a few times in these chapters, the veil is lifted, and the prophet reveals himself. "Me" is the exilic prophet.

And so this prophet, who is not Isaiah, invites his audience to gather around him, and acknowledge the truth. This prophet, sent by God, has spoken these words to "you" from the beginning. The prophet says, "I've been openly telling you about Cyrus, and your coming freedom, from the very beginning. You knew you were going to get to home, before any of you thought it was possible.

And the prophet ends by saying, "and now the Lord Yahweh has sent me with his Spirit."

So earlier, we read that Yahweh is about to do something new. Here, we read that Yahweh has "now" sent his prophet with his Spirit.

What could it mean, that Yahweh has "now" sent the prophet with his Spirit?

This isn't the first time Yahweh has sent him. This isn't a "now," like the prophet is just now showing up. He's been with them since the beginning. What this "now" shows us, is that there's some new task that God has given the prophet. This is just a little clue, but what we will see next week, is that the new thing God is doing (verses 6-8), He will do through his prophet.

Verses 17-22:

(17) Thus said Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

"I [am] Yahweh, your God/Elohim, The One teaching you to profit/benefit (1 Samuel 12:21; Proverbs 11:4; Isaiah 57:12);

The One leading you on the way you should walk.

(18) If only [Num. 14:2; 20:3; Isa. 63:19; Ps. 81:14; compare Luke 19:41-44] you had paid attention to my commands,

it would have been like a river-- your prosperity/peace (shalom), [Isaiah 66:12]

while your righteousness, like the waves of the sea, [Isaiah 54:13-14; 60:17; *Paul]

(19) and it would have been like the sand-- your offspring/seed,

while the descendants of your body, like its grains.

It wouldn't be cut off,

and it wouldn't be destroyed-- his name, before me. [Isaiah 56:5; 1 Sam. 24:22; Revelation 3:5]

(20) Go out from Babylon; [Exodus 12:41; 13:3]

Flee from the Chaldeans. [Exodus 14:5; both exodus verbs getting used here]

With the sound of rejoicing, announce!

Cause to hear this;

Cause to go out up to the end of the earth;

Say,

He has redeemed-- Yahweh-- his servant Jacob, ["He has redeemed" is focused]

(21) and they weren't thirsty when through the deserts, He led them;

Waters, from a rock He made flow for them, [Isaiah 41:17-18; 43:20; 49:10]

and He split the rock,

and waters flowed. [contrast Isaiah 43:16-20, esp. v. 18]

(22) There is no prosperity/peace, said Yahweh, for the wicked. [verse 18; Isaiah 57:21]

I think we see two main things in these verses. The first, is a missed opportunity on Israel's part. God has given them lots of chances to listen to his voice, and to turn to him with faithfulness, and righteousness. And they didn't do it. Being stubborn toward God has a price. You will fail to receive all of God's covenant blessings. They could've had "peace," or "prosperity," like a river (the origins of the hymn lyrics?). They could've had lots and lots of kids. And they could've made sure that their name was never cut off before God. They've missed out on some of these blessings, permanently. And others hang in the balance.

We all know people who have grown old, and looked back on their lives with regret. They chased the wrong things. They lost sight of what's important. And they didn't figure things out until the very end, the last couple years of their life. I think what this passage shows, is that God looks back on some people's lives the same way. There's a regret on God's part that comes, when His people don't listen, and don't walk with faithfulness and righteousness. Many of those people call on God's name. They identify as belonging to God, and they maybe even do. Or, at least, for a time they belonged to God. But their life is much harder than it needed to be, because, verse 22, God refuses to give shalom-- peace, prosperity-- to the wicked.

At this point in Isaiah, God's people have certainly missed out on some of God's blessings. But what we see, in verse 20, is that there is still a path forward. God calls on them to leave Babylon. Return to Jerusalem; go home. Rejoice in what Yahweh, and not your idols, has done for you. Tell everyone what Yahweh has done.

The second thing we see in these verses, I think, is that there are things that Yahweh will do his people, regardless of their faithfulness. In Isaiah, God is redeeming them, and freeing them, so that they are able to go home. God is doing this, even though they are serving idols.

But we also see that there are things God won't do. God won't make his people repent. God won't make his people listen. God won't even make his people go home. He invites them to leave Babylon (Revelation 18:4) and come home, but He doesn't force this. In Isaiah 46, we saw a vision of God having no problem dealing with the Babylonian gods (Isaiah 46:1 in particular). In Isaiah 47, we saw God having no problem dealing with Babylon itself. The only real obstacle to parts of God's plan, is here, in chapter 48-- God's own people. God won't force his people to be faithful, against their stubborn and rebellious will.

So that's our passage for today. It's a big, messy, important passage, and it's hard to know where to focus.

Let me leave you with three quick thoughts:

(1) You can choose to live in a way, where you don't receive God's best. God would love if your commitment to Him was done with faithfulness, and righteousness, and that's what He expects from you, but it's your choice. The choice you make comes with consequences, positive and negative-- but it's your choice. If you listen, there is shalom like a river (verse 18). But there is no shalom for the wicked (verse 22).

(2) The most valuable character trait that you can develop in life, is a willingness to listen. Something like 11 times in this chapter, Israel is told to listen. No one likes to be told they are doing something wrong, or that something could be done better. No one enjoys being challenged by a friend, when they approach you, and say, "Garrett, I feel like you are being selfish, or proud, or stubborn. I feel like you are in the wrong here." If you're not willing to listen to God, or to the people sent by God to fix you, and build you up (Ephesians 4:11-13), nothing will ever change for you. You might always have a streak a stubbornness inside of you, that wants to rise up, and push back, when people challenge you. But if you overcome that, and listen despite yourself, you put yourself in a position where you will grow in loyalty and allegiance to God, and where you will set yourself up to receive God's shalom blessings.

(3) We don't want to come to the end of our lives, and have God say about us, "If only my people had listened, and paid attention to my commands." Let's resolve to not have a wasted life, filled with missed opportunities, and missed blessings.

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