Bible Study: June 28, 2023

Okay, so tonight we will look at chapter 42. It occurs to me, the last two weeks we've been in chapters 40 and 41, and we're in this section of Isaiah that really is now speaking to hope.

Many of these chapters where God is really spelling out and giving us a picture of the hope that we have in Him. You know, we've talked about how God, in the first two chapters here of this section in chapters 40 and 41, He talks about how He will deliver, how He will bring back His people, how He will restore things, how He will deliver them from their enemies and make things wonderful for all people. He reminds us, though, that because of our sins, because of the sins of the world, because of Satan's influence and the way people yield to it, that there will be difficult times.

And through it all, we keep hearing God say that they may know that I am God. What He wants people to know that He is God, He should and must be glorified, and that all things are dependent on Him. And we need to look at Him. He is our only hope. He is salvation, and He is a good and loving God. And everything He does is for our own good so that we can enjoy eternity with Him.

Last week in chapter 41, we talked about one of the things we talked about was this crimson worm that seemed to pique the interest of several of you as I received emails this week. And as we look at how God built into nature, some of the things that just motivate us and they help us understand what Jesus Christ did, who He was, and the picture that God had done, the tremendous detail that's there in all of the universe that has so much spiritual significance to us as well.

In chapter 42, we're going to look at a couple of phrases that we've heard over the years that maybe you've heard and just didn't know exactly what they're talking about. In chapter 42, we'll see a little bit of a picture of Christ's first coming and then His second coming as some of the contrast in this chapter as God again spells out His plan for us and the hope that we have in Him.

So let's go ahead. Are you recording? I am recording. Yep. Okay. Yep. So we end in chapter 42.

Chapter 42 in verse 1, and immediately in this chapter Isaiah is inspired to write about Jesus Christ. He says there in chapter 42, verse 1, Behold, My servant whom I uphold, My elect one in whom My soul delights, I put My Spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

So we see here, it's clear that God is talking about Jesus Christ. He is hope. He is salvation.

He is the one who makes salvation and all the future for all of us possible. And God is talking about that using words, using words whom that hear that He echoes when Jesus Christ was on earth, when He says, My elect one in whom My soul delights. And probably, you know, we're reminded of what God said in Matthew 17 and Matthew 3. Matthew 3, remember when Christ was being baptized and the dove lit on Him and God said, This is My Son. This is My Son in whom I am well pleased.

It was a beautiful thing, you know, that God has said, I am well pleased in Him.

And in Matthew 17 verse 5, actually, we should look at Matthew 17 verse 5. It's a very inspiring set of verses as you look at the transfiguration there. And as Christ talked about the beginning of His church, you know, He gave three of the disciples there a clear vision of what the future was going to be like as He envisioned, let them see what it would be like to be in the kingdom of God. And in verse 5 there of Matthew 17, it says, while He was still speaking, behold, well, let's just, let's just read verses 1 through 5. Verse chapter 17, verse 1 says, Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Of course, it wasn't. Remember, this is a vision, as it tells us later on in this chapter. God is giving them a vision of the kingdom, much like He gives us a vision, and that vision that we have of the kingdom, how things will be like when Jesus Christ returned, should drive us and inspire us, just as this vision did for Peter and James and John.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with them, and Peter answered and said that Jesus Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. And that's a message for us, too. This is Jesus Christ, in whom God is well pleased. Jesus Christ, who fulfilled every prophecy that was written and planned from before the foundation of the earth, who did it all with his eyes fully on the kingdom, even though he was suffering, and his lot would be to suffer for all of us. And he did it all, as it tells us in Hebrews 2, for the joy that was set before him. And so, as we're here, beginning in chapter 42, if we go back there to chapter 42, we see God inspiring Isaiah to write, my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights. Why does God delight in him?

Because Jesus Christ did everything that God said. Jesus Christ yielded to him, and it was God, the Father, who led him through life, gave him the words, gave him the works that Jesus Christ himself said. I have put my spirit upon him. We won't turn back, but you, if you're taking notes, you remember back in Isaiah 11, it talked about the one who would be Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. And God said, my spirit will be upon him, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of the fear of the Lord, and all those things that are listed there in Isaiah 11. I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. So keep your finger there in chapter 42. Let's go forward to Luke 2, because as Jesus Christ, and I don't know if this was recently in a sermon or if it was in a Bible study, we turned to Luke 2.32 before. But as Jesus Christ was born, and Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple to fulfill whatever the rituals were for newborns in those days, you'll remember Simeon was there, and he was delighted to see the Messiah there, and said that, you know, it was a promise that God had made him that he would not die until he saw off the child Jesus. And in verse 28 of Luke 2, we see Simeon making some comments that Mary, Jesus's mother, would keep in her heart. Simeon in verse 28 says, took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

So as Mary and Joseph heard those things there, it says in verse 33, they marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Just remember at that time, Gentiles were persona nine brata. The Jews didn't interact with the Gentiles. The Gentiles didn't interact. They held each other in disregard.

And here this child, this the Savior, this Messiah, would bring light to the Gentiles. Very same thing that it says here in chapter 42 verse 1. You know, there's no doubt here in chapter 42 that that God is talking about the one with the coming Messiah, the one who would be born Jesus Christ.

And so we see that in this chapter. The next few verses talks about what Jesus Christ was like when he was on earth, a man. In verse 2, it says, he will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. And you think back to Jesus Christ's manner when he was on earth. You know, the John the Baptist, before him, it says he was a voice crying out in the wilderness. We read that earlier in Isaiah. We read it also in Matthew. He's a voice crying in the wilderness, but Jesus Christ says it didn't come out to be a loud voice. He wasn't coming to raise his voice, not causing his voice to be heard in the street. His voice was heard, but he wasn't the the fire and brimstone preacher, if you will. He wasn't there to chastise the world. He made the comments repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. He spoke the truth. He spoke it very clearly. He spoke it very directly. He wanted everyone to know exactly what the truth was, but you remember it says he was lowly and gentle. He was meek. He was strong in the word, and he was strengthened under the control of the master, as meekness is defined by the Greek word praus. But he wasn't one who was the fire and brimstone speaker. He was there, and he set an example, and his purpose for coming to earth the first time and being born was different. We'll see the contrast later on in this chapter of when he returns the second time. So there in verse 2, it says he didn't come to do that.

Verse 3 talks about how he would be among the people. A bruised reed he will not break.

Now we're not as familiar with reeds and marshes and swampy areas as they would have been back at the time in the Middle East where Israel was and Jerusalem is. But we know what reeds are.

Remember the story about Moses, and he was set adrift in the Nile River among the reeds and the bull rushes and those things that grow in the water. The reeds were not trees, if you will.

They were not strong. They could be bent. They could be broken. If a strong wind came, those could be broken apart and they could just be left for nothing. They were the opposite of a strong tree. And when it talks about here, actually if we keep our finger there in verse 3, Jesus Christ uses the same analogy of a reed when he's speaking of John the Baptist of all people.

So go back to Matthew, or go forward to Matthew 11. Matthew 11 and verse 7.

This is the occasion when John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus Christ is going about doing the things he did, healing the sick, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, sitting down with sinners, being willing to talk to anyone who would listen to him, revealing himself as Messiah to those even outside of the Jewish religion and to the Samaritans. And in Matthew 11, as John sends one of his disciples to Christ, you see there, and asks, are you the one we're waiting for or should be waiting for another? Jesus Christ was not the same personality as John the Baptist. He was a different person, and perhaps John the Baptist expected him to be breathing fire and brimstone and condemning and all the people out there. And Jesus Christ wasn't doing that. But Christ answers him and says, look what's happening here. Jesus answered, tell John the things which you do hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. Here's the acts of the kingdom. These are the things that God has sent me to do. I am healing the sick. I am preaching the gospel. Don't be offended because I'm not the person you thought I would be. I am doing what the will of God was.

That was the purpose for his first coming here. And as they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John the Baptist, what did you go out into the wilderness to see? Did you go to see a reed shaken by the wind? Did you expect that John would be one of these weak, if you will, reeds that could be bent to and fro, blown about by every wind of doctrine, bending and even being able to be broken? No, John the Baptist was absolutely strong. He was absolutely crystal clear in what his mission was, and he completed his mission very faithfully, too.

For Christ to say, among men there has not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist.

He was anything but a bruised reed or a weakling. He was a strong tree, but Jesus Christ asked him, well, what did you expect to see when you went out to see John? Did you go out to see one of these reeds that were here? And so when we look at chapter 42, Isaiah is talking about the coming of the Messiah. It says, a bruised reed he will not break. Now, a bruised reed is one that's even a little weaker than the normal reed. It's broken. It's ready to just give up, to be broken, to drift away and fall into the water and not to be seen anymore. Jesus Christ didn't come. This is likening it to a person who is weak in the faith, who is tired, who is about to give up. Jesus Christ didn't come to break him and send him away. He didn't come to break the weak. He came to strengthen people. He came to give them hope that he was the reason for that hope. He was salvation. He would be the one who could make them strong and give them the zeal and the energy to move forward and to develop the strength that they need to keep on through the world and keep on going in the world and endure to the end. A bruised reed he will not break. He didn't come to break people. He came to save people. He came to show them the way, show them the truth, show them the light so that they could find that goodness and that greatness of God and have that vision of the kingdom and live their lives according to that way. Going on in verse 3, it says, smoking flax, he will not flinch. And it uses the conjunction there. A bruised reed, he didn't come to break.

And a smoking flax, he will not flinch. Noah talks about smoking flax there. The flax refers when you look into some of the history of what these things meant back then when these things were written. It's like a candle, the wick is on a candle. And as that candle becomes a little a little less weak, the flame is about to go out. And when it begins to smoke, you know that the wick and the flame is about to disappear. The light is about to go out. And the flame is about to be extinguished. So when again here, this is Christ saying, there are people that might bring to mind the five virgins in Matthew 25, when Jesus Christ talked about, you know, there were 10 virgins. Five had no oil left in their lamp. They left the light, they let the oil go out. And this smoking flax refers to that type of person. The light is just about to go up, out. He's just about to give up. He has no hope. He's discouraged. He's in despair. He sees no reason to go on.

But Christ didn't come here to break him. He didn't come to put the fire out. He came to ignite that fire so that it could be bright again. Smoking flax, he will not clench.

Remember always through it all, it is not God's will that any should perish. He doesn't want to see the light go out on anyone. He doesn't want to see anyone's reed broken. He doesn't want to see anyone just drift off into the sunset and disappear. His will is that everyone would have life. Everyone would be on fire. Everyone would have the vision of the coming kingdom of God being led by His Spirit that they would endure to the end and be excited about life, which is Jesus Christ was and as John the Baptist was, fulfilling and doing whatever He calls us to do. So it's a beautiful two verses here that that are one verse that God has put in here.

Jesus Christ didn't come to break people. He came to save people. That's what He gave His life for, that sins could be forgiven. And then God resurrected Him from the dead that we would have the hope of eternal life. A bruised reed, He will not break. That's not why He came to do.

And smoking flax, He will not clench. He didn't come to condemn people. In fact, you know what, let's go to John 3 for a moment because He says those very same things in John 3.

When He's talking to Nicodemus, He says He didn't come to condemn the world. He didn't come to do that.

In John 3, let's begin in verse 16, a well-known verse. John 3, 16, and read through to the end or not the end of the chapter, through verse 21, the words that Jesus Christ spoke in John 3, 16.

He says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's what God's will is. But we have our responsibility in that as well. For God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world as of why He came to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but He who does not believe in Christ is condemned already because He hasn't believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They see the light. Jesus Christ came to bring with the future to shine light on the world, to shine the light to the way to eternity, but some choose darkness because they don't want the light. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and doesn't come to the light, lest His deeds should be exposed. But He who does the truth comes to the light that His deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. He who does the truth, that's what you and I have been called to do. That's what we do. We speak the truth in love. You remember Ephesians 3, Ephesians 4, 15?

It's translated speak the truth in love, but it really is live the truth in love. It's doing the truth, not just speaking it. And here at the end of verse 3 in chapter 42, Jesus Christ talks about that. Same words that He said Himself when He was there on earth. I didn't come to condemn. I came to save. I came to show the way. And to those who want to follow the way, here's the way, the truth, and the life. So the end of verse 3 here in Isaiah 42, it says He will bring forth justice for truth. For truth. And you know that it's by the truth that God binds all of us here tonight and His people all over the world together in truth. John 17, Jesus Christ said, sanctify or set them apart, sanctify them by truth. Your word, your word is truth. So going on then in verse 4, what lies in Isaiah 42, it says Jesus Christ will not fail. Well, we know He wouldn't fail. He came, He voluntarily came and went through what He did because He loved mankind so much and His will is that we would all have each life if we learn to live the way of life that will mark the kingdom of God in eternity. He will not fail and He won't be discouraged. He won't fail and He won't be discouraged. You know, Jesus Christ, He lived His life. He did everything good for mankind. He healed everyone who was brought to Him, healed them of their diseases. He was kind to everyone. He was giving. He gave of Himself and literally gave His life. And He could have thought, man, these people, no matter what I do, they just aren't getting it. He wasn't discouraged. It was the plan of God. He was here to do what God wanted Him to do, regardless of how many people followed Him or how many people didn't like Him. He simply was here to do what God said and bring light to the world.

And so that is a message for you and me, too. That we are not here to be discouraged if things don't go the way we want. If we have more trials than we bargained for or thought we might have, if there are tougher things in our path and we thought that we don't get discouraged and we don't think God has left us. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He always is there to bind us up and to be with us and lead us and develop us and give us the strength and the experiences and to develop the character we need to serve Him for eternity. One thing, just looking at my notes here, going back to Jesus Christ didn't condemn the world. I wanted to find out another thing in the Gospel of John. We read John 3 16-21. But another notable thing of what Jesus Christ did is that He didn't come to condemn someone, but He came to save and show the way of what we need to do.

That is, repent. Repent and believe the Gospel and do the truth. But in John 8, you have this occasion of the lady who is caught in adultery. You'll remember that the people are there. They're ready to condemn her. They bring her to Jesus Christ. They said she was caught in adultery. Judge her, condemn her, stone her to death. You remember the event here.

As we pick it up here in verse 6 of John 8, they tell Jesus the law of Moses is stone her. But what do you say? In verse 6 it says, this they said testing Christ that they might have something of which to accuse Him. What are you going to do with this? Are you going to condemn her?

But Jesus stooped down, rode on the ground with His finger as though He didn't hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let Him throw a stone at her first. And again, He stooped down and rode on the ground, whatever He was doing, or if He was just allowing them to have time to think about what He was saying, who am I to accuse? I'm a sinner as well. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Hisself and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? She certainly was caught in the act. She certainly could have been condemned.

Did Jesus Christ condemn her? Has no one condemned you? And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus didn't either, because He came to save. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. Learn the lesson, see the life, change your life, and do it the way God said to do it. Follow the words of truth. He didn't come to condemn. He didn't come to to quench the smoking flax or break the bruised reed. He didn't fail, and He wasn't discouraged just because everyone didn't just completely follow Him. Instead, they wanted to put Him to death.

He wasn't failed. He wasn't discouraged. The same thing that you and I must remember. Don't be discouraged. Just keep doing what God's will is. He will not fail. I'm back in Isaiah 42. I'm sorry.

Isaiah 42 verse 4. He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for His law. I remember last week we talked about the coastlands and how the modern-day descendants of Abraham, the ones on whom Jacob, known as Israel, put His name, seemed to inhabit the coastlands of the earth. The Americas, the Englands, the Australia, New Zealand, those nations that have all this, all the coastlands around them as a natural barrier and a blessing to them. And the coastlands shall wait for His law. And as you read the law there, it's waiting for the religion of Jesus Christ. It's waiting for Jesus Christ to return.

It's waiting for His law to be established in the earth. We've read when Christ returns that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. His law will be on everyone's lips. Now I'm looking for a verse here that I thought I had written down here that speaks to that. But anyway, you know what that is. The coastlands will wait for His law. There will be wait, and now we're going to move into more of the the second coming of Christ. We're still, you know, because we're going to be looking at this a little more, as what God said, because He will restore Israel. They will suffer, and they will be put into, go into captivity.

But God is always there as their hope. Let's look at verse 5 then.

Verse 5, thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. Here God is reciting what He has done. He is the reason the earth is here. He is the one who created us. He is the one who gave us life. He is the one who gave us this planet to inhabit, to dress, to keep, to tend, to learn from it, and to develop the character in this physical life that He wants us to have. I the Lord, verse 6, says, I the Lord have called you in righteousness.

Well, actually, He is talking about Jesus Christ here. I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand. I will hold your hand. I will be right there with you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people and as a light to the Gentiles. So Jesus Christ did that, as we read in Luke 2, 32, and with His death, with His ascension into heaven.

And we look in the New Testament times, and, you know, as we discussed on Pentecost, no doubt where you were, that God opened, you know, with the advent of Jesus Christ, with His Holy Spirit that we poured out on all flesh. God did open the way of salvation to the Gentiles as well as to His people, Israel. I will give you, I will keep you, means I will guard you, I will watch over you, and give you as a covenant to the people. This is the promise. This is the hope. You are the Savior. You are the Messiah. You are coming, and you will bring light, and you will bring life to the world. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. Speaking and foreshadowing the New Testament times that we live in, what would He do? He would open, verse 7, open blind eyes, bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. He was going to free the people from the Yoka bondage that they, that had been brought upon them. If we go down through verse 9 here, we see this prophecy that we see in other places, even in Isaiah. We'll come back to that in a minute. To bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. This is the Savior. This is the deliverer. This is the one who brings us light and gives us the freedom from the yoke and bondage of Satan, whose only desire is to destroy mankind. I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Here's God again. Remember in chapters 14 and 41, He would talk about those idols, those idols that you created for yourself, mankind, whether they be idols of wood, idols of stone, idols of gold, idols of silver, whatever idols we have in this world that we may rely and trust on. They are all man-mated. God says, I'm not giving my honor to any of it.

It is me. It is me, God said. Deliverance and hope is only in me, not in anything that you've created in the world. I will not give my glory to another and my praise to carved images.

Behold, the former things have come to pass. Those are the things that are prophesied. The former things, all these things you've been reading about, the former prophecies, the dual prophecies that we've read about in Isaiah, they've come to pass. The Messiah came and He fulfilled every single one of those prophecies in the Old Testament to the letter, the other things about Tyre and the fascinating Babylon and how it fell and all those things that we've read about in Isaiah, how they came about exactly as God said centuries before they actually happened. Not even a coincidence.

They're so unusual and so unique in the world that it could only be by God's design. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Now there is another prophet who said a similar thing. You know, all these things I've given you, but I will even reveal more to you as time goes on. New things I will declare. The former things have come to pass. Before they spring forth, I will tell you of them. Well, let's go forth to Isaiah 61. In the light of those first nine verses that we read about Jesus Christ, the hope of mankind, the savior of mankind, the one who came to bring light to the world and deliver us from a lifetime of futility and meaninglessness and to bring purpose into our lives, it should remind us of what's written here in the first four verses of Isaiah 61, the very same verses that Jesus Christ himself recited when he was handed the book of Isaiah in the temple in Luke 4, and he read these things about who he was and why he came to earth.

Now what his mission was, the Spirit of the Lord God, Isaiah 61 verse 1, is upon me because the eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. Here's the gospel of hope. Here's the gospel of the kingdom of God. It also bears repentance, turning from your way and turning to God's way as a requirement to be in the kingdom of God, to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. The world that we live in is full of brokenhearted people, people who have been suffering misery and war and famine and all sorts of things brought upon by themselves.

You know, when you look at the history of Israel, you know, we've talked about, I know Ezekiel, was it Ezekiel 20 verse 43, when modern day Israel sees what they've done to themselves, they will loathe themselves. They bring the misery. We bring misery upon ourselves because we don't do things God's way. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, not to condemn them, not to break them, not to kill them. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. I will show you the way, the truth, the life, but you, if you have this hope in you, 1 John 3, 3, if you have this hope, you purify yourself. You become the way God wants you to be. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening the prisons of those who were bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. Because that day of the Lord, that time that is pictured by the Feast of Trumpets that precedes the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom, when God exacts His vengeance on a world who has turned against Him, that they may know God and that they may worship and glorify Him forever.

To comfort all who mourn. Chapter 40, we read about God, the God of all comfort. To comfort all who mourn. To console those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. He will give them strength. He will take them from a bruised reed to a mighty oak into a mighty cedar of leavened and something to be glorified. It will be because God did it, and He will be the one glorified as a result of what happens when people turn to Him and allow Him to to exact what He does, to live the life that He has called us to live. You know, if we look a few books forward into the book of Amos, it's Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. We see that Amos talks about these prophecies where Jesus Christ said, the former things have come to pass. Some of the prophecies have been fulfilled.

We know there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled, but we know God's Word is sure. In Isaiah, He says, when He speaks it, it will happen. We don't have to wonder about it. It will happen just as it has in times past. And here in Amos 3, verse 7, you know, God inspires the prophet Amos to say this, speaks to you and me in times that we live in now. God has given prophecies, and He will reveal more, He says, as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ, as we need to know things.

In Amos 3, verse 7, it says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets. He will provide what we need to know. We don't have to guess. You know, we sometimes speculate, and it's kind of fun sometimes to speculate, but speculating is just speculating. It's God who will let us know. And so many times we learned that what we speculated isn't the way it turns out. We just wait for God. We wait for the return of Jesus Christ, as it says in verse 4, what the coastlands will wait for Him to return and establish His way.

And then finally, you know, it says, and new things I declare. Now we can think to Revelation 21.5, where it says, well, you don't have to turn to Revelation 21.5. There it says, I make all things when Jesus Christ returns, He will make all things new. The former things have passed away. The time of sorrow, the time of war, the time of misery on this earth will be replaced by a time of harmony and peace, abundance for all mankind, regardless of where they live. No partiality, no bias, simply God doing what God does, loving all of mankind. And so we see here in chapter 42, we see this hope, and I hope you're feeling that hope that is there as God defines what's going on, what we need to do, what He will do in that time ahead of us that is there. We go back to chapter 42 then. Hold on just a minute here. Yeah, go back to chapter 42 in verse 10. It says, Sing to the Lord Anuson. Praise Him. Sing to Him. Glorify Him. He's taken us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He's taken us who were not a people and made us a people, His own special people whose minds He has opened to do His will to become the first fruits that He wants us to become. Sing to the Lord a new song and His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them. Praise God. Sing to Him. Look to Him, coastlands, God's people who have been scattered throughout the earth, the descendants of Abraham, the ones who have had Israel's name placed on them, as it tells us back in Genesis 48 and 49. Let the wilderness, that's the coastlands, but then let the wilderness. Here we've got these areas, the ones who are in the wilderness, the ones who aren't in God's, who aren't His people. We've got God's people that are the descendants of Abraham that God looks at, but He loves all of mankind.

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. The pagans, the Gentiles, Christ came to bring light to the Gentiles. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. The villages that Kedar inhabits. We can go back and you can look at the genealogies of Genesis. You see that Kedar is a descendant of Ishmael. I don't know we've discussed that in these Bible studies, but Ishmael, of course, was the father of the modern-day Middle Eastern countries. He was the son of Abraham by the hand-maiden Hagar, and he was a wild man that tells us that he became a wild man. When you look at the descendants of where Ishmael are, there's this bitterness between Ishmael and the son of promise, Isaac, that's there today. They are in the Middle East. So here God is talking about these Gentiles that are out there. Let the wilderness, and its cities lift up their voice. Let them praise God too, because He came to bring them salvation. Let them raise up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits, the son of Ishmael.

Let the inhabitants of Selah sing. Now you'll remember S-E-L-A in verse 11. We did talk about Selah back in Isaiah 16 when we talked about Mohab and we talked about Petra and we talked about Mount Seer and we talked about God's cast out ones and the places where God will reserve or His cast out ones.

When we talked about Isaiah 16, that's the area of Selah, the Jordan, the Middle East. So we know what God is talking about here in verse 11. He's not talking about Judah. He's not talking about Israel. He's talking about them in verse 10, but in chapter 11, or verse 11, He's talking about the Gentiles. Let the inhabitants of Selah sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. Let them also praise God. Let them glory to God that He has made all things new, that He has brought the world together, that He has united mankind from around the world, and that Israel is recognized as being the people of God because of the faith of Abraham and the fact that God set them apart because of the obedience of Abraham and his descendants.

Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. The Lord, the Eternal, will go forth like a mighty man. He will stir up His zeal like a man of war. Yes, He's going to come. He's going to deliver mankind from the misery that is going to befall them. I probably say it too often, but one of the things it says back in Revelation 11, when the hosts of heaven are singing and Jesus Christ is going to return to earth in Revelation 11, 18, if you want to turn there, it talks about what the time preceding Jesus Christ's return is.

Satan, we're told, is the power behind the beast, the government that is extant on the earth at that time that will lord it over people, that will force His religion on them, that will force His God on them and require that people bow down before His God, or they won't be able to buy or sell.

In verse 18 of Revelation 11, it says, the nations were angry. You know, where Satan is involved, where Satan is involved, there's always anger. There's always anger. The nations were angry and your wrath, God's wrath, has come. It's pictured by the trumpet plagues that we read about and that the Feast of Trumpets pictures.

The nations were angry and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged. The time of the return of Jesus Christ is near. When His return comes, there is the resurrection of the first fruits, followed after the millennium by the resurrection of the rest of the dead and everyone who lived, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great, and you should destroy those who destroy the earth.

That's where the world is headed. Jesus Christ didn't return. The world would blow itself up. There would be no there would be no flesh to continue on earth, but Jesus Christ said that He will come and He will save the earth from the destruction that Satan would certainly bring upon it. He is the only hope. He is truly the Savior and our salvation in every sense of the Word. So it says in verse 13, going back to chapter 42, He'll go forth like a mighty man. Now in verse 2, we read that He wasn't, you know, He wasn't going to cry out.

He wasn't going to raise His voice. He wasn't going to cause His voice to be heard in the street. He came not to condemn, but to save. He came to show the way, the truth, the life. Hebrew 6 says He was the forerunner. He showed us this is the way it can be done. But here in verse 13, He will go forth like a mighty man. This is talking about His second coming.

He's not coming to not raise His voice this time. That was the first time a Savior, a healer, a friend of mankind here to show light to the world. But when He returns, He's a mighty man of war. He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He will cry out, yes, shout aloud. He will prevail against His enemies. Matt's speaking of His second coming when He returns to the earth.

As we read in Revelation 19, when He comes with His sword drawn and His arm is behind Him and completely eliminates all the men, weapons, and powers that be on earth that are there assembled in Armageddon to battle against Him. It might remind us Jesus Christ who came to heal the brokenhearted, who will return to bring salvation to us, who will deliver His people from the misery and from the captivity and the oppression that others will place upon us because of our sins and because we have departed from God.

It might remind us of the time that God delivered His people from Egypt.

Let's go back to Exodus 15 for a moment and read this song of Moses, or this song that was recorded in Exodus 15, after God delivered Israel from Egypt, where they were oppressed, where they were enslaved, where they were miserable.

And it was only God, only God who could deliver them. And He came forth in power and might to deliver Israel from the hand of the most powerful nation on earth at that time. Next to this 15, verse 1, after they crossed over the Red Sea or passed through the Red Sea and Pharaoh's host was drowned in the sea, says, I will sing to the Lord. He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. The eternal, verse 2, is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him. That sounds a lot like Isaiah 42. He is my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord, or the eternal, or Y-H-W-H is His name. Dropping down to verse 6, verse 6, your right hand, O Eternal, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O Eternal, has dashed the enemy in pieces, and in the greatness of your excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.

You sent forth your wrath. It consumed them like stubble. Verse 11, who is like you, O Eternal, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretch out your right arm. The earth swallowed them, and you in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. He was taking them to the Promised Land, and when Jesus Christ returns, He will bring Israel, His people, back to the land that He promised them then. So in chapter 42, we see this hope. We see God telling us, Christ will return. He will be a mighty man of war.

He will deliver you. He will deliver you, and He will redeem you, and He will prevail. Verse 13, against His enemies. It's a beautiful, a beautiful tribute, a beautiful chapter here that we're looking at on how God will be things that should inspire us and should make us want to grow even closer to God because we feel His strength, we feel His promise, we feel the truth that He has called us to. In verse 14, in verse 14, with my notes here, make sure I'm not forgetting something I wanted to talk about.

Yeah, verse 14, God says, I have held my peace a long time. I've been patient, God said. I've waited. I've given you plenty of time to overcome. I've given you plenty of time to turn to me.

I haven't been hasty in my judgment of you. I have given you time. I have been, I have held my peace a long time. I've been still and restrained myself. Ultimately, God is merciful.

Ultimately, God is patient with us. We all know that we should thank God every day for being patient with us and not giving up on us, any of us, you know, long ago, because any of us, and I food myself on that, God had every right to give up a long time ago, but we could thank Him always that He never gave up on us and that He continued to work with us until we came to our senses and see who He is and what His purpose was. Yeah, Xavier, you got a comment? Yeah, that statement there reminds me. In Psalms 50, verse 21, it says, God says to us, these things you have done, meaning practicing evil, and He kept silent. And then, sadly, the people started thinking that that was all together as one, as themself, but He says He will correct and set them in order before their eyes. Very good. That's what God, He just wants us to learn, to do His way so He can give us everything He wants to. So in verse 14, you know, on chapter 42, I've been still, I've restrained myself, you know, what time we have here. Let's go back real quick to Exodus 34.

There's a verse there that talks about how God is. We should remember, as we read about Him being patient and how He restrains Himself, and He gives us the opportunity to come to Him. In Exodus 34, verse 6, as God is working with the people there, Moses and having them come up there, verse 6, it says, the Lord passed before Him and proclaimed the Eternal, the Eternal God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. Long-suffering, patient, gracious, merciful, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the children's children to the third and fourth generation, and so forth. God, who is merciful, patient, gracious to us, wants us, isn't willing that any should perish, but gives us the time to become who He wants us to become as we yield to Him. So, verse 14, here we're going to look at the time of the return of Jesus Christ, the time before His return to earth. I've held my peace a long time back in verse 14. I've been still and restrained myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor. I will pant and gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains and hills. I am coming with vengeance this time. I will shake the world. They will know who I am. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, dry up all their vegetation. I will make the rivers coastlands, and I will dry up the pools.

Yeah, Agardo? Yeah, the concept that you were talking about is also what it's on the computer chapter 3 and verse 9 that the God is not slacking, but is long suffering to give people time to change and repent. Very good. Exactly. That's exactly it. I will bring, verse 16, going back to Isaiah 42, I will bring the blind by a way they didn't know. I mean, God's talking about His people here. They have been blind to His way. They may say they know who Christ is. They may claim that He is the Savior. They believe He's the Savior, and they probably are sincere in believing He's the Savior, but they aren't following His way. They are blind to what His law is and what His way of life is. I will bring the blind by a way they didn't know, not the way that they've been taught in their churches in the world, but the way that Jesus Christ lived. By the way the apostles lived. By the way Paul lived when he said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. I will bring the blind by a way they didn't know. I will lead them in paths they have not known. He's the way, but they aren't following the way Jesus Christ has. The churches of this world that call themselves Christian are not following Jesus Christ as He walked. They're not leading Him to the paths that He walked in, but God's true church is. The Bible is the truth, and we are to follow Him. That's one of the basic things. Follow Me. Don't devise your own paths.

Do what I say to do. I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them. They will see the truth. Their eyes will be illuminated. They will see. They will hear. They will be joyous. They will be happy. They will have peace. They will begin to see the goodness of God. These things I will do for them. I'll open their eyes. My Spirit I will put on them. They have to choose to follow it and not follow their own ways. These things I will do for them and not forsake them. God doesn't forsake us. He doesn't give up. It's us who gives up on Him.

They shall be turned back. That's repentance. Turn from your way. Turn to God's way. That's what repentance is over and over. God told ancient Israel, turn back to me. Turn back to me. Why would you die, O Israel? Remember we read that a few weeks ago in Ezekiel 18 near the end of the chapter there. They shall be turned back and they shall be greatly ashamed. I already mentioned that Ezekiel 2043, they will be ashamed. They will loathe themselves when their minds are opened.

What were we thinking? How could we have been so misled? How could we have been in such error to think that God would have led us in this way? They will be turned back. They will be greatly ashamed who trust in carved images, who say to the molded images, you are our gods.

Over and over, God says the gods of this world, whatever they may be, leave them behind. He will render judgment on all those gods that may be in our lives to the point where we come to say there is only one God we trust in. Verse 18, talking to his people, hear you, death, and look, you blind that you may see. Who is blind but my servant, or death is my messenger whom I send. Let me see what I have written here about that.

That's kind of a difficult verse there. Some of the commentaries indicate that talking about the Jews there, that they are blind even though they have the detail of God's words, but they are not applying it the way that they should. It's only Jesus Christ who leads us into the proper application. The Jews didn't see that when he was there either. They were blind to his way.

Brother Shaby! Yes, sir. What verse was that? 19, Isaiah 42, 19. Okay, thank you. Yep.

19, who is blind as he who is perfect, or might be one who thinks he's perfect, thinks he's going in God's way? Who is blind as one who thinks he's doing things God's way? The thing is, make sure you are doing things God's way and not the way mankind or someone has led you to believe as God's way. Know what his will is by looking into the Bible and following it exactly. Seeing many things, you see many things, verse 20, but you don't observe. Not paying attention. You're not really looking clearly. You see many things, but you don't observe. Opening the ears, but he doesn't hear. Over and over, God says, you know, our ears are dull. We're not paying attention to what he is being said. Yeah, Xavier. You remember that account where Christ was speaking to the man he had healed and will glorify God and say he believes he's a prophet and Christ revealed himself. He's the Son of God. And then they were saying, are we blind? And Christ said, I don't know if that's John.

I did find some account in John chapter 9 though where Christ says, and those are the Pharisees who were with him, heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would not have sinned. But now you say we see, therefore your sin remains.

They're not ready yet by the grace of God to repent. So hence, they are still lying, even though they say they see. They think they see, but they are blind, right? Yeah, exactly. John chapter 9.

Yeah. And so God's talking about this. Open your ears. Hear. Watch what you're doing. Don't be dull of hearing and just think that the way you've always done it is right. It's not as the world is going to learn. The Lord is well pleased, verse 21, for his righteousness say he will exalt the law and make it honorable. The people today, they want to discount everything about the Bible. They don't want to hear anything about what God says. They don't even want to hear that he said he made them male and female. What? That's ridiculous. Some people will say we can be whoever we want to be.

It's a silly, silly world that rejects everything that God says. We should turn there to Matthew 5.

Matthew 5, Christ addresses that pretty well when you look at his words there, words that people want to just kind of ignore. In Matthew 5 and verse 17, Christ said, Don't think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I didn't come to do away with the Old Testament. I didn't come to do away with those things. I'm not saying they were all wrong. Just throw them out. Don't think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I didn't come to destroy but to fulfill, to fill them up. Now it wasn't just physical obedience and adherence to the laws, but the spiritual as he goes on in the Sermon on the Mount to talk about. It's not just killing your brother physically, but if you hate him, that is a violation of the covenant. The same thing with adultery. For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, last time I looked, heaven and earth were still here, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled until Jesus Christ returns and the purpose for physical man and the purpose for this physical earth is complete. Last I looked, that's still what God's term is, what God's purpose is, and he's still working that out. That means every single one of those 10 commandments we are to obey. And if we're just so disregarding any of them, we're violating it all and not doing what Jesus Christ said. And until we come to understand and do his will completely, we have things to learn. Yeah, Gardo?

Kind of what you were saying, you know, that verse 21 on Isaiah 42, I guess it was prophetic in the sense that, for example, in the English standard version, it says that the Lord was pleased for his righteousness' sake to magnify his law and make it glorious. So in a sense, it is the prophecy of what Jesus Christ came to do, which is what you were explaining. That's what he did.

Yep. Okay, verse 20, verse 22. We're going to get through chapter 42 here. This is a people robbed and plundered. All of them are snared in folds. All they are hidden in prison houses. It's like, you know, here it is. They could have had freedom. They could have been living a wonderful life, but they're plundered. They're always, there's things that just aren't right because they don't follow God. They're robbed. They're plundered. They're snared in holes. They're hidden in prison houses. They are for prey, and no one delivers for plunder, and no one says restore.

God's people are just Israel. They're just, they're just always looked down upon. Remember Christ's words, I have come to heal the brokenhearted. I have come to deliver them from prison. I have come to bring comfort to them, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.

No longer will they be plundered. No longer will they be looked upon. No longer are down upon. No longer will they be oppressed. I will deliver them. I will deliver them, and their enemies will be will be overcome, will be defeated. Who among you, verse 23, will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Will you pay attention? Who gave Jacob? That's Israel, modern Israel as we know it. Who gave Jacob for plunder and Israel to the robbers? How did it happen? Wasn't it God who did it? He against whom we have sinned? He promised protection. He promised deliverance. He promised he would be the salvation. But if we have this hope, we purify ourselves. We turn back to him. We do the things that he said, not the things that man teaches us to do, but exactly what the Bible says, living by every word of it, paying attention to it. Who gave him for plunder? Who gave Israel to the robbers? It was God, because they departed from him.

He was him against whom we have sinned, for they would not walk in his ways, nor were they obedient to his law. Therefore, he has poured on him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle.

It has set him on fire all around, yet he didn't know, and it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart. Hopefully we all take it to heart and look at the hope that God has given us, and do the things with all our heart, minds, and soul that God has called us to do. So let's stop there at chapter 42. We'll pick it up in chapter 43 next time, but if there's any comments, questions, yeah, Laramie? Yes, on verse, I think it was 14, Xavier mentioned a psalm. What psalm was that again? That really struck me hard. Write it down.

Psalm 50. Okay, yeah, I'll go back and read that. I thought that was quite, just grabbed my attention. Thank you.

Mr. Chey? Yes, Zegardov. I guess from verse 24 to the end of the chapter, it's probably an example of kind of a dual prophecy, because that's what happened to ancient Israel, that basically, because of the civilians, God gave them to the invaders to be conquered and plunder.

And it's prophesied to happen in the end time to the modern descendants of ancient Israel, unless they repent, of course, but yeah. Yep, exactly.

Anything else, anyone?

Okay, let me, we'll call it a night then. Next week, we're gonna, well, we won't have a Bible study.

It's the 5th of July in America, and we've got this, we've got the 4th of July holiday. I know we've got family coming in, and we've got a wedding here. My youngest son is getting married on the 7th, so we're gonna be kind of wrapped up in a lot of things here over the end of next week. So we won't have a Bible study next week, but we'll be back together. We'll be back together.

Was that a project that was getting married?

Yeah, huh? Yep. So, yeah, so that's so we won't have a Bible study next week. We will have one on the 12th, and then those of you in Florida, I will see you. While those of you in Jacksonville, the Sabbath, and in Orlando, the following Sabbath. So, I guess if there's nothing else, that's it. That's it for tonight.