A servant of the Lord (Isa 44:1-28)

NO HIGHER CALLING (Isa 44:1-28)
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2017 

One of the characteristics of canines that humans find attractive is that a dog often knows what it means to be a servant more than a person does.

Jack is a police officer who would occasionally park his cruiser in residential areas to watch for speeders. One Sunday morning, Jack was staked out in a driveway when he saw a large dog trot up to his car, stop, and sit just out of arm's reach. No matter how much Jack tried to coax him to come for a pat on the head, he refused to budge. After a while, Jack decided to move to another location. He pulled out of the driveway, looked back, and learned the reason for the dog's stubbornness.... The dog quickly picked up the newspaper the cruiser had been parked on and dutifully ran back to his master.

A dog often knows what it means to be a servant more than a person does. It may mean delaying gratification until just the right moment. In the end, however, for a dog, his primary duty is to serve his master. So also for the believer; there is "No Higher Calling" than to serve the Lord.

To be called a servant of the Lord is an honor. It does not necessarily mean that such a person has a vital or indispensable role in advancing God's plan or merely that he makes a useful contribution to it. Hence, the biblical writers may apply the title ("servant") to the righteous or to the unrighteous, to those who consciously serve Him as well as to those who do not.¹ The greatest servants are, of course, those who assist Him willingly, even enthusiastically, who purposefully work for His interests (e.g., Moses).² The greatest involvement belongs to those whose servant position is the result of explicit divine election, like Israel. God states as much to Moses on more than one occasion:³

If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodl9:5-6a)

I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations.... You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. (Lev 20:24b, 26)

You are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

The rest of scripture records the unfolding of God's program as Israel fulfills (and fails) the role He has for that nation.

Several times in his book Isaiah calls Israel a servant of the Lord,⁴ a position the prophet ties to God's election: "You, O Israel [are] my servant... whom I have chosen... You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you." (Isa 41:8-9) The clearest assertion of Israel's position comes in chapter 44 in the midst of the prophet's condemning a practice God's people have adopted from their pagan neighbors. Isaiah begins the chapter with some encouragement. Although the forces of Babylon are moving inexorably across the Ancient Near East and will eventually destroy Israel, sending the people into exile...

I. God will restore Israel (44:1-7).

A. He will return people to the land (vv. 1-4).

Isa 44:1 "Listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. 2 This is what the LORD says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun,⁵ whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring.⁶ and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.

There is good reason for people to be afraid. Internationally, the Babylonian Empire's military juggernaut is moving across the Ancient Near East, destroying any opposing military force. Domestically, the regime in Judah is corrupt and weak: King Zedekiah "did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as [his father King] Jehoiakim had done" (2 Kings 24:19). There is great uncertainty among God's people. The current regime will fall, and the citizenry will go into exile. ⁷ but there is hope. Isaiah says that not only will God return people to the land...

B. He will return people to the Lord (vv. 5-7).

Isa 44:5 One will say, 'I belong to the LORD'; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and will take the name Israel. 6 "This is what the LORD says—Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. 7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come—yes, let him foretell what will come.

The prophet Ezekiel addresses this national repentance:⁸

You, my people, will know that I am the LORD.... I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.... The nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever. (Ezek 37:13-14,28)

For Ezekiel and for you this scenario of Israel's restoration is yet future, but it is still certain because it is part of the plan of God, the plan He established in the beginning.⁹

Application: Do you "belong to the Lord" (v.5)? Assuming your connection to Him is not something you want to keep secret, how do others know? Is it the "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker on your car, the WWJD bracelet on your wrist, or the Holy Spirit lava lamp in your den?¹⁰ Regardless of the particular visual aid, the best advertisement for God is your life with God. So, His people should set a good example for others:¹¹ The sage said, "He who walks with the wise grows wise" (Prov 13:20a), and the savior said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35.¹² Your godly example is your best advertisement for a life with God.

By bringing the people back to the land and back to the Lord, God will restore Israel. In the process...

II. God will reform Israel (44:8-20).

A. He will encourage the worthiness of piety (v. 8).

Isa 44:8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid.¹³ Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses.¹⁴ Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.¹⁵

The phrase about God's exclusivity—"There is no other"—is common in Isaiah, especially in the next chapter:

I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. From the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men will know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.... [Foreigners] will bow down before you... saying, "Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god." ...This is what the LORD says... he who created the heavens.. . he who fashioned and made the earth... "I am the LORD, and there is no other.... Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other." (vv. 5-6, 14, 18, 22)

Idolatry was rampant in Judah and was a major reason God gave for banishing the people from the land: "You have lifted up...idols...which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile." (Amos 5:2627)¹

Isaiah may be trying to prevent or postpone the inevitable, a devastating judgment. Perhaps he can encourage reform by promoting a realistic understanding of this pagan practice.

B. He will expose the worthlessness of idolatry (vv. 9-20).

1. Those who make them toil in vain (vv. 9-16).

Isa 44:9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless.¹⁷ Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own. 10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? 11 He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy. 12 The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. 13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. 14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15 It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm: I see the fire."

Despite activities both time-consuming and labor-intensive, the result is still a man-made product, hardly a deity.¹⁸ That those who manufacture idols toil in vain is a common observation in scripture.¹⁹ Habakkuk asks, "Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? ...For he who makes it trusts in his own creation. [Moreover,] he makes idols that cannot speak." (2:18) Not only does an idol offer little banter, it provides no real benefit.²⁰ What good then is venerating an idol?

2. Those who worship them serve in vain (vv. 17-20).

Isa 44:17 From the rest [of the wood] he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god."²¹ 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" 20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

That those who venerate idols worship in vain is a common observation in scripture.²² Earlier in the book, Isaiah questions the intelligence of anyone who would devote himself to an idol: "Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save" (45:20b). This is self-delusion at least partly self-imposed: "God visits on the pagan mind the gathering darkness it has freely chosen" (Oswalt 1998:185). As Paul describes the situation:

Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Rom 1:21b-23)

The ultimate outcome of idolatry is what Isaiah cited to open this section in v. 9: "shame" (also v. 11),²³ humiliation upon realizing at last how much of life one has wasted in vain pursuit.

Application: Idolatry is not much of a problem in western society. Paul, however, links it with something that is a problem today. To believers in the church at Colossae he writes, "Put to death...whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed [or covetousness], which is idolatry" (Col 3:5). In what way is greed like idolatry? ...Both idolatry and greed relate to a person's trust in and commitment to God, raising at least two questions you would do well to consider:

• First, is your acquisition of things ever more important than your devotion to God?

Keep in mind what Jesus said to his disciples: "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed [for] a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15).

Is your acquisition of things ever more important than your devotion to God?

• Second, are you content with what you have or are you covetous of more?

The author of Hebrew writes, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Heb 13:5).

Are you content with what you have or are you covetous of more? Idolatry is akin to greed, which God expects His people to avoid.

Having promised to restore and reform Israel, Isaiah goes on to say how along the way...

III. God will remind Israel (44:21-28).

A. He wants people to remember their redemption (vv. 21-23).

Isa 44:21 "Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you. 22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." 23 Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.

God exhorts His people to "remember these things."²⁴ Then He assures them: "I will not forget you" (v. 21), which He follows with a stunning declaration of divine pardon: "I have swept away your offenses" (v. 22), all the idolatrous behavior that sent Israel into exile—gone in a single stroke, and creation breaks forth in celebration.²⁵ This is no mean feat, and He wants people to remember their redemption, something they could not accomplish for themselves no matter how hard or how long they tried. Equally important...

B. He wants people to remember their redeemer (vv. 24-28).

Isa 44:24 This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, 25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,²⁶ 26 who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'It shall be inhabited,' of the towns of Judah, 'They shall be built,' and of their ruins, 'I will restore them,' 27 who says to the watery deep, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,' 28 who says of Cyrus,²⁷ 'He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid."

Despite God's very busy schedule creating and maintaining the world, He takes the time and makes the effort to help a relatively small group of people. He even said so through Moses:

The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers... (Deut 7:7-8a).

Despite all the trouble Israel caused, despite many preferring idolatry over piety. God kept His promise to a man long dead to make his descendants a great nation, more than that, to factor those same people into His great plan.

Application: The same applies to you. God did not choose to redeem you because you were good looking or especially intelligent. In fact, God elected you at a particularly low point in your desirability: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8b). Nevertheless, He intends to factor you, along with the redeemed of Israel, into His great plan, and He destines you for a leading role in His great plan: "The King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world" (Matt 25:34).²⁸

Isaiah gives God's assessment of Israel's spiritual condition and future prospects in light of the nation's involvement with idolatry. The immediate prognosis is bleak, but the extended prognosis is better, much better. Because of the nation's moral decline and impending exile, the Israelites will face severe hardship. Their hardship will end, however, with the messiah's coming to reign, at which point the people of Israel will finally realize their full potential as the people of God, with "No Higher Calling" than to serve Him.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.