Faith Academy 2011 Featuring Dr.

Reed Lessing on Vimeo All 5 videos

Lesson #1 (Duration 2:21:29)

Introduction
The importance of Isaiah 40-55
 Dr. Lessing calls Is. 40-55 the most important 16 chapters in the Bible.
 Paul’s motto: We preach Christ crucified comes from Is. 40-55.
 That Christ will suffer, die, and rise again comes from Is. 40-55.
 1 out of every 17 NT verses is inspired by Isaiah.
 Two thirds of the NT quotations of Isaiah are from Is. 40-55.
 If you want to understand the NT, then you need to understand Is. 40-55.

How do we read Isaiah?

 Isaiah is made up of three different “books” – one author, three sections: 1-39, 40-55, 56-66.
 To understand 40-55, we must understand what comes before and after it.
 Need to understand the historical context. Is. 1-39 speaks to the events and people of Isaiah’s
day.
 In Is. 40-55, Isaiah speaks as a prophet to exiles in Babylon in the 6th century BC. Directed to
people who are enmeshed in a pagan culture and are tempted to worship idols. For NT writers,
Babylon becomes a symbol of all that is wrong with this world. Isaiah’s charge is to get people
out of Babylon. We live in Babylon too. We live in a culture of idolatry, so we are being
addressed in these chapters too.
 We also want to look at the canonical context. We want to look at how does Isaiah fit into the
whole Bible.
 We need to understand how Isaiah uses poetry. We are used to narrative, not poetry. The key to
Hebrew poetry is repetition with intensity. Isaiah uses a lot of poetry. (Yet there is a story line in
Isaiah.)
 Centrality of the Gospel. That is God’s final and primary word to humanity. Is. 40-55 emphasizes
the Gospel.
 The centrality of Jesus in the Scripture and in Isaiah. We read it looking for Jesus.
 We want to make practical applications. It’s not just information but it is transformational. God
wants to get us out of Babylon. We want to see how God is speaking to us in our lives.

How Isaiah fits into the Biblical Story

 The patriarchs
 Slaves in Egypt
 The exodus
 Entering the promised land
 The judges
  United monarchy
 Divided monarchy – Israel and Judah
 Isaiah called to speak to Judah
 Exile to Babylon. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah all address Babylon.
 Persian empire. Long before it happens, Isaiah names the first Persian king by name – Cyrus.
 Return to promised land
 Intertestamental period
 The coming of The Messiah

Isaiah’s Life and Times

 Isaiah lived from 740 to 680 BC. He had a 60 year ministry.
 Isaiah lives at the time when Israel (the norther kingdom) still existed.
 Isaiah lived to see the downfall of the Asyrian empire.
 United monarchy. All of Israel ruled by one king.
 Divided monarchy. Kingdom split in two: Israel and Judah. Each had their own kings. So there are
two sets of kings, two sets of histories.
 All the kings of Judah are from the line of David.
 There were several different dynasties of Israelite kings. A change of dynasties usually occurred
by means of violence.
 Isaiah is called in the year Uzziah died (740 BC). Is. 1:1 lists the kings under which Isaiah
prophesied. King Manasseh is not mentioned but he is the one who killed Isaiah.

Four Major Covenants in the OT

 To understand the Bible (and Is. 40-55), we need to be able to understand covenants.
 In the OT there are two different types of covenants. One is a covenant of divine commitment. It
has no conditions. It is pure gospel. The other type of covenant is one of human obligation. In
this type, God says I am doing this for you and I am expecting and empowering a response from
you.
 The four covenants are covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David.
 The covenants with Noah, Abraham, and David are unconditional covenants. They are covenants
of divine commitment. The Hebrew word for this is chesed. Psalm 136 repeats chesed 26 times:
his chesed endures forever. When everything fell apart for Israel and Israel had nothing left, they
still had these unconditional covenants.
 The covenant with Moses was the only covenant of human obligation.
 Isaiah will use these four covenants. We will see how he uses them in Is. 40-55.

The First Covenant – The Covenant with Noah

 The first covenant was God’s covenant with Noah and it occurred in Gen. 9. In it God made a
commitment to all of creation. Is. 40-55 is all about God’s restoration of all creation.
 Is. 54:9-10 compares the exit from Babylon with the flood. As sure as God’s unconditional love is
for his creation, so was his unconditional love for his people in Babylon. God’s promises, whether
to Noah or to his exiled people, are always good. Is. 40:12-31 is the most definitive theological
reflection on creation in the scriptures.
  In ‘This is the Feast’ that we sing in our liturgy, we sing these words: “Join in the hymn of all
creation for the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign.” That line is a great summation of Is.
40-55. One question that Is. 40-55 addresses is, who is the real king? Is. 52:7 says, Your God
reigns. Your God is King. The Lamb reigns. The Lamb is King.
 In Isaiah there are several creational celebrations. God’s restoration includes all of creation.
-In Is. 42:10-11 creation (the seas and deserts) is to sing a new song to Yahweh.
-Is. 44:23 is the second creational hymn. In it the high and low places, the mountains and forests
are to sing for joy.
-Is. 49:13 is the third hymn. The heavens and earth and mountains are to rejoice in God’s
restoration.
-Is. 55:12-13 is the fourth hymn. They will leave Babylon in joy. God will carry them out. When
that happens the mountains and hills breakout in joy and the trees clap their hands. This is not
just poetic rhetoric. Creation is being restored. The restoration is cosmic.
-One more example of a hymn of creation. In Is. 51:3 Yahweh will make the desert like Eden.
 The Noahtic covenant is unconditional and with all of creation.

The Second Covenant – The Covenant with Abraham

 Israel is a missional people. The OT is a missional document. “The great commission” is given in
Gen. 12:1-3. Abraham was to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
 In the covenant ceremony of God’s covenant with Abraham, Abraham was to cut some animals
in half and lay them out. Normally both covenant partners would walk through the slain
animals. God walks through them in the form of a torch and boiling pot. By doing so, Yahweh
was saying, If I go against my word in this covenant, you can kill me. The other participant in this
covenant was Abraham. Did he walk through the cut-up animals? No, he was in a deep sleep. So
this whole covenant rested explicitly on Yahweh’s commitment.
 The promises made in this covenant were land, offspring, and blessings to the nations.
 We learn in Joshua that Abraham was an idolater. He is not a virtuous or righteous person in and
of himself.
 The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional and is an everlasting covenant.
 How does this interface with Is. 40-55? The people are in exile in Babylon and think that God
has given up on them. Isaiah looks to reassure them by means of the Abrahamic covenant.
- Is. 41:8: Israel was the offspring of Abraham. That means God has unconditional love for them.
- Is. 51:2: The people had given up hope but Isaiah looks to Abraham and Sarah. God called him,
blessed him, and multiplied him. The idea is, he did it once, he’ll do it again. If he did it once
with an idolater like Abraham, he can do it again with these idolaters.

The Third Covenant – The Sinai Covenant

 This is the only conditional covenant.

 In Ex. 19:5 Yahweh says, if listen to my voice and keep my covenant then you will be a prized and
priceless possession out of all the peoples. The important word in this is “if”. When “if” is used,
it means it is conditional. The Sinai covenant can be broken and in fact they did break it in Ex.
32. The breaking of the tablets by Moses was symbolic that the covenant had been broken. The
Sinai covenant is broken by unrepentant idolatry. You don’t break the covenant by lying,
cheating, or stealing because you have the whole book of Leviticus so that people can be
 forgiven. The sacrifices were a means of grace but if the people ignore the means of grace and
persist in idolatry then God will lower the boom (Lev. 26; Duet. 28). Covenant curses will fall on
the people, not because they did not obey, but because they didn’t want to hear. And if you
don’t hear, you don’t have faith. And if you don’t have faith, then you are an idolater.
 It is believed that the covenant at Sinai follows a pattern used in other near-eastern treaties and
that it has six parts to it. These treaties were between a suzerain and vassal. The suzerain
dictated the terms of the treaty.
 In Ex. 20 the Ten Commandments are given. It starts out with God saying,” I am Yahweh your
God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.” According to this
theory, this sentence is the first two parts of the Sinai covenant. It begins with gospel, saying that
he is their God and that he saved them. God is a liberating God. He liberates from every kind of
bondage we find ourselves in.
 Because of who God is and what he has done, Israel is to have no other gods. In this context, this
is the third use of the Law. This is what you will do. The way God says “no” is in the indicative
form and not in an imperative form. God is not saying, don’t do this. He is saying, you won’t do
this. Why? Because I rescued you from slavery. In context, the initial giving of the Ten
Commandments is in the third use of the Law – as a guide. This is what you will do. Now, you will
do it imperfectly but that is why we have the sacrificial system.
 They are to read it three times a year to the whole family. The witnesses to the covenant are
heaven and earth. Sin affects the created world. In Is. 1:2, Isaiah calls heaven and earth as
witnesses against Israel. And Yahweh is the Judge and Jury.
 The blessing of repentant idolaters is that they will get to stay in the land. The curse if you are an
unrepentant idolater is to be kicked out of the promised land.
 So Isaiah addresses a people who are in Babylon. They have been kicked out of the promised
land because they have ignored the gospel of the Sinai covenant. They have had other gods
besides Yahweh. They are unrepentant idolaters. They have broken the Sinai covenant.
 Ex. 32 is the first time Sinai was broken. Was that the end of Israel because they broke the
covenant? No! Why? Because when it appears that all is lost, Moses appeals to the covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (v. 13). Isaiah does the same thing in Is. 40-55. Israel broke the
covenant at Sinai and have been sent to exile. But that is not the end. The final word on the
matter is found in the covenant with Abraham and that is unconditional. Yahweh has plans for
Israel, a hope and a future.

The Fourth Covenant – The Covenant with David

 2 Sam. 23:5 says God made an “everlasting covenant” with David. In it God promises David an
everlasting kingdom.
 How does the covenant with David find itself in Is. 40-55? For Isaiah, David is only used once in
Is. 40-55 and it is Isaiah’s ace in the hole. In Is. 55:3 Isaiah appeals to the covenant with David.
And he says, this unconditional covenant with David is for all of the Israelites. They are still in
Babylon but Yahweh has made and is making a commitment to them. This is the only time David
is mentioned in Is. 40-55.

Covenants and the NT

  This helps us better understand how covenants are used in Isaiah and in the scriptures. Matt. 1:1
starts out by calling Jesus the son of David and the son of Abraham. God made an unconditional
covenant with both of them. Jesus came to enact the unconditional covenants of David and
Abraham.
 When Paul talks about being baptized (end of Gal. 3), he calls us children of Abraham.
 Heb. 13:20 speaks of an eternal covenant. The promises made to Noah and all creation, the
promises made to Abraham and his offspring, the promises made to David are all sealed in the
great Shepherd of the sheep.

Is. 1-39
Historical Background of Isaiah the prophet
 See above where this was already discussed. He had a long ministry under several kings.

Isaiah’s International Flavor

 Isaiah talks about several Assyrian kings.
 Isaiah talks about the Babylonians.
 Isaiah talks about the Persian king Cyrus.

Outline of the Book of Isaiah

 Is. 1 is an overview of the whole book.
 Is. 40 is an overview of Is. 40-55.
 Is. 2:1-5 contains the center of the book’s message.
- The mountain of the house of Yahweh is Zion. Within Isaiah, God’s mountain, God’s house,
God’s temple, and Zion are all synonymous. Isaiah pictures Zion’s restoration. That is huge when
studying Is. 40-55. Zion is a mess in Is. 40-55. She is pictured as Yahweh’s unfaithful wife who is
estranged from him. Because they are in Babylon, she thinks that he has divorced her. Zion’s
restoration comes in Is. 54. The only way this restoration takes place is through the Suffering
Servant in Is. 53. That is when the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be restored.
- Who is going to come to the restored Zion? All the nations. This goes back to Gen. 12:1-3.
Throughout Is. 40-55, all nations are the target.
- Yahweh will teach us his ways. Is. 40:3 talks about preparing the way for Yahweh. In Is. 40-55
we are going to learn God’s ways.
- Torah should not be translated as Law as most English Bibles do. That leads us down the wrong
path. It is not about the Lord who wants us to obey his Law. It is about Yahweh who wants us to
listen to his Word. That makes all the difference in the world on how you approach the OT.
- We will stop here for tonight and start out next time with an extensive review.
Lesson #2 (Duration 2:29:06)
Review from Lesson #1
 The bulk of the first part tonight will be a thematic overview of Is. 40-55 with an extended
discussion on idolatry.
 Isaiah had a large impact on the NT. Specifically the Servant Songs and the missional focus
impacted the NT. Paul is especially influenced by Isaiah. Even Jesus was affected by Isaiah.
 Isaiah is writing to Judahites in Babylon. Isaiah writes this book before the Babylonian captivity
takes place. So he writes to the Judahites who are going to end up in Babylon.
 Hebrew poetry is all about repetition with intensity. It paints a picture. It uses symbolism.
 Isaiah prophesied from 740 BC to 680 BC.
 The Judean kings that lived during Isaiah’s ministry were: Uziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and
Manasseh.
 There are two kinds of covenants, conditional (Sinai) and unconditional (Noah, Abraham, David).
 There are four major covenants in the OT:
-an everlasting covenant with Noah, his offspring, and every living creature,
-an everlasting covenant with Abraham was made while he was asleep,
-in the covenant at Sinai the outcome was based on Israel’s response to God’s grace (If – Then),
-and the covenant with David was everlasting.
 How does Isaiah use the covenants in Is. 40-55?
-Noah is mentioned (Is. 54:9). Just as God spared Noah and his family, so he will spare a remnant
of Israel and show them steadfast love. Also, all creation is going to be restored (Eden
referenced) and celebrate God’s redemptive activity.
-In Is. 51:2 those exiled in Babylon are encouraged to look to Abraham and Sarah. And the
people are called either Israel or Jacob connecting them to the patriarchal covenant. In Is. 41:8
the people are called the offspring of Abraham.
-Moses doesn’t appear in Isaiah but the whole reason they are in Babylon is because they broke
the Sinaitic covenant. The curse for breaking it is exile from the land.
-The covenant with David is an everlasting covenant that goes forward to all future generations.
 The six parts of the Sinai covenant are: 1. preamble (I am your God), 2. historical prologue (who
brought you out of Egypt), 3. stipulations (Ten Commandments – a guide on how to live), 4.
Preservation/rereading (tablets in Ark and read 3 times a year), 5. Witnesses (heaven and earth),
and 6. blessings and curses (stay in the land vs. exile).
 How is the following a nice summary of Is. 40-55: “Join in the hymn of all creation for the Lamb
who was slain has begun his reign.”? There are 4 creation hymns where creation celebrates the
restoration of Israel and the world. The celebration starts before the restoration is fulfilled. God
is praised before he accomplishes that which he promised even in the darkest moments. The
Lamb who was slain is the Suffering Servant who was slain but who rises to rule over all. In the
end all of creation will be restored after it has been cleansed by fire.
 The goal of the 16 chapters is to get people out of Babylon. Three times Isaiah calls on the
people to get out of Babylon. If you don’t leave you are going to die because it is a land filled
with false gods.
Back to the Outline of Isaiah (begins at 45:00)
 Continuing Is. 2:1-5 the center of the books message.
As a review:
-V.2 Yahweh is going to lift up his mountain and Zion will be vindicated (a theme in Is.) and all
the nations will stream to Zion (a theme in Is.).
-V. 3 Yahweh instructions his people in his way with his Word.

Then in v. 4 we start the new material. A major theme in Isaiah is peace (shalom). There will be
no peace for the wicked, for those who refuse to leave Babylon (Is. 48:22). Babylon promises
shalom but it is a lie. The only way to have shalom/wholeness is found Is. 53:5. The Servant takes
our punishment on himself so that we might have shalom. The Suffering Servant is the only
means of shalom.

V. 5 is another example of celebrating the coming victory of God now. They are to live in the
light of Yahweh now, knowing what God has in store from vv. 2-4.

 An overview of Isaiah. (There was a slide with the outline of Isaiah on it which we could not see.)
-Is. 2:6 – Is. 12 is preaching judgment and hope for Israel.
-Is. 13- 23 are oracles against the nations.
-Is. 24-27 are universal oracles.
-Is. 28- Judgment and hope to Judah/Israel
-??? Oracles of judgment and hope
- 39? Historical narrative

 Is. 39 – Predicts Exile to Babylon

Set in 705 BC. Babylon sends envoys to Hezekiah to celebrate Hezekiah’s recovery from sickness.
Hezekiah showed the envoys the treasures of Judah. Isaiah chastises him for doing that because
it gives them a reason to come and plunder them and take their riches. Hezekiah is more
concerned about peace and prosperity now versus upheaval in the future. So the first part of the
book (Is. 1-39) ends with the idea that there is going to be a Babylonian captivity. Isaiah predicts
it.

 Isaiah 6 – Isaiah’s Call

Another pivotal chapter in Is. 1-39 that will help us better understand Is. 40-55 is Is. 6.
-In Is. 6 Isaiah is at the temple when he has a vision. There were three parts to the temple. The
first part was the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter once a year on the day of
atonement. The second part was the Holy Place and the priests operated in this area every day.
And the third part was the courtyard which the congregation could enter.

-This vision occurred in 740 BC. In Is. 6:1 it says Isaiah saw Yahweh sitting on a throne “high and
lifted up.” A major idea in Isaiah is that only Yahweh is high and lifted up . And
then in Is. 6:3 he says that the seraphim were crying out to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy. The
word “holy” is not so much about ethical morality as it is about separateness or uniqueness or
apartness. It is saying that Yahweh is far above everyone and everything else. He is completely
different than anything else. He is completely transcendent. He is completely other. He is
nothing like us.

The words “high and lifted up” only occur three more times in the book of Isaiah (four times in
total). The first time was in Is. 6:1. The second time it occurs is in Is. 33:10, where it again says
that Yahweh is high and lifted up. Remember, only Yahweh is high and lifted up. Picture it like
this. There are different levels of exaltation and only Yahweh is at the very top. Everyone and
everything else are below him. The third time is in Is. 57:15 and in it, Yahweh, who is high and
lifted up, speaks. The big question is, where is the fourth time in Isaiah that anyone is described
as high and lifted up? That would be in Is. 52:13, which is in the section we are most concerned
about – Is. 40-55. The fourth Servant Song begins in Is. 52:13. It says, the Servant is high and
lifted up and greatly exalted. That is the ultimate game-changer. Isaiah is saying that there is
someone else who is on the same level as Yahweh and it the Servant.

The NT takes this and goes with it. One of the most precise theological Christian interpretations
of the fourth Servant Song is found in 2 Cor. 5:16-21 by Paul. Let’s look specifically at 2 Cor. 5:19
where Paul interprets Is. 52:13. It says: “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.” That
is how Paul puts it. In the OT it says, Yahweh was in the Servant. Jesus says in John 10:30: “I and
the Father are one.” The writer of Hebrews says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the
exact representation of his being.” Where did this high understanding of Jesus in the NT come
from? From Is. 52:13.

How would an average person make this connection in Isaiah of “high and lifted up” being used
four times? In your normal reading of the Bible, you would not catch that. The Bible is not meant
to be read. The Bible is meant to be reread over and over again! We have a prayer concerning
God’s Word where we say, grant that we may “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them”. The
books of the Bible are written assuming that we are going to read and reread them over and
over. Biblical texts are often very subtle and so we have pay close attention to the text.

So in Isaiah, the fact that Yahweh is “high and lifted up” plays an important role in telling us who
the Servant is. The Servant and Yahweh are on the same plain. They are at the top.

In Is. 6:1-3, Isaiah saw Yahweh sitting on his throne. Standing with Yahweh were seraphim who
are crying out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Armies!” Now in v. 4 when Yahweh
spoke, the foundations of the temple shook and then the temple filled with smoke. This was the
Day of Atonement and the smoke came from the incense altar.

Isaiah saw all of this and because he saw it, he said, “Woe is me!” That means, I am as good
as dead! (Is. 6:5) Why does he say he is dead? He has seen Yahweh and he and his people are
unclean. [Uncleanness and holiness are opposites. Uncleanness is destroyed by God’s holiness.]
How could Isaiah see God? When prophets who came before the exile saw things, they really
saw those things. Isaiah is in the congregation in the court yard of the temple. And he sees the
high priest enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. And when he entered through the
 curtain, Isaiah saw God.

Because he saw God, Isaiah confesses that he is a sinner and is as good as dead (Is. 6:5). But then
one of the seraphim takes a burning coal from the incense altar and touches Isaiah’s lips with it
(Is. 6:6-7). In doing so, Isaiah’s guilt is taken away and his sin is atoned for. Isaiah’s
uncleanness is taken away.

In the 4th century AD, the church started using this text from Isaiah to understand the Eucharistic
experience. So when you go to church to the Divine Service, in, with, and under the earthly
realities of a building, pews, people, bread, and wine are heavenly realities just like Isaiah. That is
why we sing the Sanctus right before Communion. We are confessing that Isaiah’s experience is
analogous to our experience. When the hot coal touches Isaiah’s lips, he is absolved. When the
holy body and blood of Christ touches our lips, we are absolved. Forgiveness is delivered in Holy
Communion. It is not just a reminder of our forgiveness. Forgiveness is actually given.

In v. 8 God has a mission and Isaiah volunteers to go and do it. And in Is. 6:9-13 God tells Isaiah
what his mission is. In telling him what the mission is, Yahweh starts out saying, “Go, and say to
this people.” Normally in Isaiah when it says “this people,” it means the covenant at Sinai is
broken. In Ex. 6:7, Yahweh calls Israel “my people.” But in Is. 6:9, they are not “my people,” they
are “this people.” But in Is. 40:1 Yahweh says, “Comfort, comfort my people.” The relationship
was dead but now it is back alive.

What kind of ministry does Isaiah have to “this people”? In Is. 6:9-10, Isaiah is being told to
preach and teach in such a way that the people will never come back. What is going on here?
Isn’t this strange? Some might say, This is the OT, it’s got all this strange stuff. But the fact is that
Is. 6:9-10 is quoted in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. So it’s not just an OT thing.

What is going on here? We become what we worship either for ruin or

restoration. This is one of the mantras of this academy. The gods of the nations are the works
of men made of silver, gold, wood. They don’t have eyes, ears, hearts, mouths. They are
inanimate objects. Isaiah is being told to confirm the people in their idolatry. To tell them, You
are going to become like the gods you worship. Idolatry strips people of their ability to be
human beings. Idolatry makes it so that all I want is instant gratification and I want it yesterday.

 Is. 6 Gives Us the Pattern for Getting Out of Idolatry – It is Dying, Rising, and Mission

How do you become deaf and blind in the book of Isaiah? If you worship gods that are deaf and
blind, then you will become deaf and blind. So in the rest of the book of Isaiah, when people are
deaf and blind, it is because they are idolaters. So when you read Is. 42:18-19, Isaiah is satirizing
them. This tells us that when Isaiah talks about being deaf and blind, he is talking about
idolatry. They are confirmed in their unrepentant idolatry and the nation dies. The only way
sinners live in the Bible is they first have to die.
 Take a quick look back at Is. 6:5. Isaiah says, Woe is me. Isaiah is spiritually dead. We say the
same thing when we confess that we are sinful and unclean. Being “unclean” means being the
exact opposite of God. We are saying, I am everything that God is not. As soon as Isaiah dies,
Yahweh sends the absolution (coal touching lips) and is given new life. So Isaiah dies and then
lives and then is in mission. So the nation has to follow the pattern that Isaiah followed. First the
nation has to die. Confirming them in their idolatry causes death. Then at the end of Is. 6 (v. 13),
there is a holy Seed in the stump, which comes from the felled tree of Israel. There is new life
coming forth. And once they are given new life, the people will then be in mission.

Isaiah provided the pattern of dying, rising, and mission for Israel. And we follow the same
pattern. We die and rise (baptism), and then we are in mission. That is called living your
baptismal life. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. The verb he uses is for present and ongoing
results. Every day we start out confessing our sins – dying. We have a broken and contrite heart
and then we receive life from Christ, who sends us out in mission.

This is what is really going on in Is. 40-55. Is. 6 gives us what we need to understand it better. The
people are idolaters in Babylon because they are deaf and blind and God wants to get them out
of Babylon, out of idolatry.

Overview/Themes of Is. 40-55

 Chapter 40 is the prologue to this section, a summary of these 16 chapters. We will be looking at
Is. 40:1-11 in some detail.
 Is. 40:12-31 is the most sustained teaching on creation in the scriptures.
 Part 1 is Yahweh’s call to Cyrus and to his servant Israel and it ends with a creational hymn.
 In part 2, Israel is deaf and blind because of their idolatry and it ends with a second hymn.
 In Part 3 Cyrus leads Israel.
 And then there is a section on leaving Babylon.
 So sections 1, 2, and 3 have a lot to do with Cyrus, the Persian king who historically is going to
defeat Babylon in 539 BC. And in 538 BC he is going to announce to the Judeans that they can go
home. And we have the historical narrative of Cyrus’s decree in Ezra 1:1-4.

These three sections are commonly called the Cyrus cycle. And the main point is that God wants
to get Israel out of Babylon. Just as God got his people out of Egypt, so he is going to get them
out of Babylon.
 Part 4 is about the substitute servant. There are two servants in Is. 40-55. The first servant is the
nation of Israel. But servant Israel is deaf and blind, so we need a new servant, a substitute
servant. And he will do what Israel could never do. The second Servant Song is Is. 49:1-12 and
that is followed by the third creational hymn.
 Then we have the substitute Servant coming to rescue Zion and the call to leave Babylon (Is.
52:11-12).
 Then the substitute Servant declares many righteous. In Is. 52:13 (the beginning of the fourth
Servant Song) we have the Servant being high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
 The fourth Servant Song has an epilogue and closes with the fourth creational hymn.
 Here are the main points. Ch. 40 is the prologue. Ch. 55 is the epilogue. They provide an
overview and summary and in between you have Is. 41-48 which has to do with Cyrus getting
Israel out of Babylon. In Is. 49-54 the substitute Servant gets Babylon out of Israel.
 One of the major moves that Is. 40-55 makes is it is not only saturated with creational themes as
we have seen but it is also saturated with exodus themes. In Ex. 15:18 Yahweh is called the King
who will reign forever and ever. And in Ex. 12:12 Yahweh says he will enact judgment on the
gods of Egypt. So the exodus is not only a political event and a liberation of slaves, it was also a
theological event whereby God showed himself to be greater than the gods of Egypt. In Egypt,
pharaoh was considered a god, the Nile River was god, the sun was an important god. Each
plague knocked out an Egyptian god. In light of Yahweh destroying the Egyptian gods, the
Israelites recognized Yahweh as the King who rules over all.

In Is. 40-55 we have the same dynamic that existed in Egypt. The Israelites are in bondage in
Babylon. And God is going to deliver them by means of Cyrus and it will be a new exodus. And
just as Yahweh is recognized as King who rules all after the exodus from Egypt, so Yahweh will
once again be recognized as the King who reigns over all, once he delivers Israel from Babylon
(see Is. 52:7). This will be Exodus #2.
 Some more Exodus #2 motifs. In the first exodus, Yahweh led Israel via a pillar of cloud and pillar
of fire. This is the manifestation of God’s glory. God reveals his glory through tangible things. Is.
40:5 says all flesh will see the glory of Yahweh. This is an illusion back to Exodus. God is going to
show up visibly again for all to see. In the prologue to the gospel of John it says: The Word
became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Yahweh’s glory is shown through
the flesh and blood of Christ.

Is. 43:16-21 is Isaiah’s most sustained use of exodus language in section 2 of his book. Just as
Yahweh made a way out of Egypt through the sea, so he will make a way out of Babylon. In Egypt
Yahweh destroyed pharaoh’s army and now Yahweh is going to do something new. He is going to
cause a new exodus to occur. He will make a way out of Babylon through the wilderness and he
will provide for them on their way back to the promised land just as he did for Israel when they
left Egypt.

In Is. 48:21, right after the great call to get out of Babylon, there is another exodus motif. It talks
about water from a rock for the people. We remember that this happened in the first exodus.
God provided for Israel in their first journey to the promised land and he promises to do so in
their second journey. And we will see more exodus echoes as we go along.
 When they get to the promised land, it will be a new creation. This is brought out vividly in Is.
51:3 where God says he is going to make the wilderness like Eden and wasteland like the garden
of Yahweh. But you might say, wait a minute, there wasn’t any Eden-like bliss when they got
back. There were just broken-down walls. So what is going on here? There is more to come. They
got back. They got a new start. It wasn’t great at first, but there was more to come, more of a
promise to be fulfilled. For example 2 Cor. 5:17, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. It
may not seem so now, but there is more to come. So their return to the promised land was just
the beginning, it was the first fruits.
 When was the first exile when people were kicked out of the land? The Garden of Eden. So the
Israelites weren’t the only ones in exile. This is our story too. We are in exile and long to return
to the heavenly promised land. We are in captivity and when we are baptized we get a taste of
the new creation. But there is more to come. So Israel’s experience of a new creation is a lot like
ours. So Isaiah draws on these creation and exodus texts and renews them.
 Then there are these four Servant Songs. Each of the Songs has an epilogue, an
explanatory section. Note that all of Is. 54 is an explanation of the fourth Servant Song. It is
Zion’s restoration by means of the suffering Servant.

The servants in Isaiah have for a long time perplexed people. Who is the servant? Is. 41:8 is a
pivotal verse. It is the first time that the word “servant” appears in Is. 40-55. In this verse, the
servant is the nation of Israel. This is of fundamental importance.

The next text is the first Servant Song Is. 42:1-4 and v. 9 is the epilogue to it. Is. 42:1 is the next
time the word “servant” is used in Isaiah. Based on what we read in Is. 41:8, we would assume
that the servant is Israel. The third time that the servant is mentioned is in Is. 42:19, where the
servant is blind. How do you become blind in Isaiah? Through idolatry.

In Is. 42, the servant is to bring forth the verdict/judgment (based on context, not justice as most
English Bibles have) to the nations. The verdict they are to deliver is given in Is. 41:29. And it is
that all the idols are nothing but an empty wind. Israel is to deliver this message from Yahweh
but they can’t do that very well because they themselves are idolators (see Is. 42:17-20). The
servant nation is caught up in idolatry and therefore cannot bring forth the verdict on the
nations’ idols.

The servant in the second Servant Song in Is. 49 is given a second assignment of restoring
Jacob/Israel to God (Is. 49:5). The questions is, how can Israel restore themselves to God? They
can’t, so that means the servant in ch. 49 is a different servant. This Servant will restore Israel to
Yahweh because they are enmeshed in idolatry. But the Servant will not only restore Israel, he
will also be a light to the nations so that they may be saved too (Is. 49:6). The question is, who is
this Servant? And how will he do it? How he will do it will be by suffering and death, which are in
the third and fourth Servant Songs.

So in Is. 40-55 there are two servants, servant Israel (Is. 41:8, 42:1-4) which is to bring forth the
verdict but fails (Is. 42:19-20) and the suffering Servant. Is. 48 plays a pivotal role in Isaiah’s
presentation of the two servants. In Is. 42:6 Yahweh says he has called Israel to be righteous. But
the reality of Israel is much different. In Is. 48:1 God says they are not righteous. So Yahweh
rejects the servant nation of Israel because of their unrighteousness and sends another Servant
who is endowed with the Spirit of Yahweh (Is. 48:16). The second servant is the Suffering
Servant, the substitute Servant. Just as there was a second Adam, so there is a second Servant.

Is. 41:2 says Yahweh stirs up someone in the East. And then this same person is mentioned again
in chpts. 42 and 43. He is finally named in Is. 44:28 and 45:1. It is Cyrus. This illustrates how God
subtly introduces a character in Is. 40-55. He uses repetition with intensity and then finally we
get his name. That is also the way the substitute Servant is introduced.

If you want to understand Is. 40-55 and how God works in the world then you need to know Is.
45:15. Of Yahweh it says, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself.” He is a hidden God. Who
would ever think that God would use Cyrus as shepherd and messiah? You would think the
shepherd and messiah would be a Davidic king. Who would have thought Cyrus, a neo-Persian,
pagan king would be the one?

But it gets even better. Who would God use? One who was so bloody and so disfigured that we
had to hide our faces. He was despised and rejected. Is that who you would have thought would
be the shepherd and messiah? Who would have thought that God’s locus of salvation would be
in a butchered, broken, bloodied person? How does God work today? In the same way. He works
under a crucified criminal on a Roman instrument of death. That’s hidden. He works using simple
water, bread, and wine.

But then look at the second part of Is. 45:15. In his hiddenness in Cyrus and the substitute
Servant, the God of Israel is a Savior. So we would expect the Servant to be subtly and
cryptically and mysteriously introduced in ways that are not our ways. We would never think that
God would work through the hidden atrocity of the cross. (We will have to break here and pick
up here tomorrow night.)
Lesson #3 (Duration 2:31:29)
Review from Lesson #2 (for the first 46 minutes)
 Join in the hymn of all creation for the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign. That is a nice
summary of Is. 40-55.
 The first exile happened in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden. And not
only Adam and Eve but really the whole creation is in exile. We too are in exile and that means
we read Is. 40-55 in light of our own exile and bondage and our need for redemption and
freedom and liberation.
 We become what we worship either for ruin or restoration. We found people becoming deaf and
blind and calloused in Is. 6 because they became like the idols they worshipped.
 Is. 2:1-5 is the center of the book. These verses intersect with Is. 40-55 in four different ways.
(1) Zion’s restoration equates with Is. 54 (and Is. 60-62) after the Suffering Servant.
(2) Shalom. There is no Shalom for those who stay in Babylon. The punishment of the Suffering
Servant brings shalom/peace.
(3) The nations come to Zion to be saved because all people are exiled.
(4) What God will do in the future impacts my life now.
 Is. 6 helps us understand Is. 40-55 in four ways.
(1) Yahweh is high and lifted up. This phrase is used in Is. 6:1 (Yahweh), 33:10 (Yahweh), 57:15
Yahweh), and 52:13 (substitute Servant). The substitute Servant and Yahweh are on the same
plain. The two are of the same substance.
(2) Woe = Isaiah dying because he saw the holy One. Isaiah is to confirm the people in their
idolatry to “kill them” because you only live by dying first (baptism). Yahweh is holy
(transcendent, above and beyond everything) but through absolution he becomes very
accessible (imminent). He is their kinsman-redeemer who restores them.
(3) “This people” vs. “my people.” When “this people” is used, it means Sinai is broken.
(4) There is a holy seed in the stump. That seed or shoot is the Servant and he will have
offspring, who like him will be servants.
 Yahweh’s two-fold goal is for Cyrus to get Israel out of Babylon (Is. 41-48) and also for the
substitute Servant to get Babylon (idolatry) out of Israel.
 God shows himself to be King when he delivers his people from bondage. Israel’s God reigns (Is.
52:7) and the people praise and thank him for it.
 New creation. When they return it will be like Eden. It doesn’t seem like it but there is more of
the promise to come. This is the life of faith. We have a downpayment (or first fruits or tasted)
but we don’t have everything yet.
 The four Servant Songs: Is. 42, 49, 50, and 52/53.
 Is. 45:15 is the key for understanding Is. 40-55. God hides himself in Cyrus and in the substitute
Servant. In the scourging and crucifixion, Jesus did not even look like a human being he was so
disfigured and this is in whom God hid himself and was working. And in his hiddenness God
saves. He saves in what we least expect.
 (This ends the review of yesterday’s material.)
Overview/Themes of Is. 40-55 (Continuation from where we left off in Lesson #2)
 A continuation of the Four Servant Songs. We were discussing the first Servant Song when time
ran out last night.

Is. 42:1-4 refers to Israel. We know this because in Is. 41:8 (which comes before) and 42:19
(which comes after) Israel is called the servant. So we know this from context.

Why wouldn’t the servant in Is.42:1-4 be Jesus? After all Matthew quotes the first Servant Song
and applies it to Jesus. There are two types of prophecies in the OT. The first is a rectilinear
prophecy, a straight line. So for example, Gen. 3:15 and the last three Servant Songs all point
directly to Jesus. There is no initial fulfillment of these in the OT. In Acts 8 Phillip says to the
Ethiopian eunuch that the fourth Servant Song is all about Jesus.

Is. 42:1-4 is different. It is not rectilinear. Rather, it is typological. It foreshadows Jesus. There are
all kinds of types of Jesus in the OT. An example would be from Num. 21 where the serpent was
lifted up in the wilderness and all who looked at it were saved. In John 3 we see that this typifies
Jesus being lifted up on the cross and all who look to him will be saved. That is typology. In
typology, something happens in the OT and it points to Jesus. And that is what is happening in Is.
42:1-4. It is typological and it foreshadows Jesus. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.

A good example of typological prophecies is found in Matt. 12. In it Jesus says one greater than
Solomon is here, one greater than the temple is here, one greater than Jonah is here. So
Solomon, the temple, and Jonah are all types of Christ. They foreshadow Jesus. Once you are
keyed into this, you find that all kinds of things in the OT point us to Christ.

So Is. 42:1-4 is typological. In time Christ will live it out but in Isaiah Israel will not live this out.
And that is why we need a second servant.
 (Question before taking a break. How did the preincarnate Christ function and interact with the
OT people? To answer that, we will look at some NT verses. First, we look at John 1:18. It says no
one has ever seen God but the unique One has made him known. In the OT, people say they saw
God (Is. 6:1; Ex. 24; Gen. 32). But in Ex. 33 God says, No one can see me and live. So how do we
resolve this tension? John 1:18. No one has ever seen God the Father but God the Son has made
him known. [So if anyone saw God in the OT, they were seeing the preincarnate Christ or God
the Son.] Next, take a look at John 14:9. Here Jesus makes it very clear to Phillip that if you have
seen me, you have seen the Father. Many times in the OT the preincarnate Christ is called the
angel of the Lord. So if you look for the typological prefigurements of Christ and the rectilinear
prophecies of Christ in the OT then you come to the conclusion that much of the OT is about
Christ.)
 After taking a break, the class continues with the Servant Songs. We begin by looking at the
second Servant Song.

The first servant, the nation of Israel, was called in righteousness (Is. 42:6). But Is. 48:1 says that
Israel is not truthful or righteous. Since they cannot fulfill their call, Yahweh calls a substitute
 Servant (Is. 48:16c). And his job is to restore Israel to Yahweh. If the servant was the nation in Is.
49, how could the nation restore the nation to Yahweh? But if Is. 49 is rectilinear and only
applies to Jesus, this makes a lot of sense. The righteous Servant will not only restore Israel but
he will also be a light to the nations. This is what Jesus did and who he was.

Now we go the third Servant Song. It repeats that the Servant will suffer and be rejected but
with greater intensity. In Is. 50:8 it says, my vindicator is near or the one who makes be
righteous is near.

Then we get to the fourth Servant Song in Is. 53:11 where he says, My righteous Servant. We
saw where the nation was called to be righteous but was not righteous. And we saw where the
substitute Servant was called to restore Yahweh’s wayward servant Israel and to be a light to the
nations. Then in the third Servant Song we saw the righteous, substitute Servant vindicated by
Yahweh. Now in the fourth Servant Song we see that the righteous Servant will vindicate or
make righteous many.

We are included in the many. We are like Israel. We were called in righteousness, but because of
our idolatry we have not been righteous. Yahweh calls the substitute Servant to restore us to
himself by making us righteous.

Is. 54 explains the fourth Servant Song. Is. 55 is a summary of Is. 40-55. So in Is. 54, Isaiah saves
the best for last. Is. 54:17c talks about the inheritance of the servants of Yahweh. Because of the
work of the Servant, the nation is being reconstituted as God’s servants. Their inheritance is
righteousness that comes from Yahweh. They have an alien righteousness, a righteousness
that comes from Yahweh through his Servant. This is the righteousness that Paul writes about in
all of his 13 letters. Where does Paul learn about a righteousness that is imputed and is outside
of us and is a gift and gives us a right standing with the Father? Is. 40-55, with Is. 54:17c being
the pinnacle.

Notice that as we tracked through the four Servant Songs, we’ve tracked through them based on
righteousness. By doing this, we see that there is a story to the Songs. It is a story of a nation
called in righteousness, forfeiting it in idolatry, God not giving up on his people, sending a
substitute Servant who is righteous and who declares to God’s people that they have an
inheritance which is God’s righteousness. That’s an amazing story.
 In Is. 40-55, God wants to make a way out for the exiles. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all begin
their stories of Jesus with Is. 40:3-4. So these verses and this section of Isaiah must be a pretty
pivotal part of the Bible. We know that this is John the Baptist crying out in the desert, Prepare
the way for Yahweh.

So the first way is preparing the way for God. To understand this, we need to get the full context.
God left his people. We are told about this in the book of Ezekiel. In Eze. 8, God said, I’ve had it;
I’m leaving. But he leaves in stages. His glory doesn’t leave the temple until Eze. 11. It’s hard to
leave someone you love. It breaks God’s heart, but eventually he left the temple. We have to
understand that in order to understand Isaiah. Isaiah is saying that God is coming back. Prepare
 the way for Yahweh, he is coming back. And that is the message of John the Baptist. He will do
so in a hidden way (Is. 45:15), through Jesus. When the Gospel writers quote Is. 40:3-4, the idea
is that people are still in captivity and bondage and exile but it is a spiritual exile.

So again, the first way is that God is coming back. And we don’t get this until Is. 52:8. The Lord is
returning, which means he must have first left. And Eze. 8-11 helps us understand this better.

Now when Yahweh comes back, he is going to make a way for the people (Is. 43:16, 19). And the
way that God will make we cannot imagine because God’s ways are not our ways. Who would
have thought that God would use a Nazarene carpenter and make him The Way for us out of
bondage and exile. Jesus said, I am The way.
 Another theme is idolatry. In Is. 46:1-2, Isaiah satirizes two of the gods and idols of Babylon.
Their gods cannot even move themselves. They have to be placed on beasts of burden. Nebo is
the god of communication and Bel is the main god of Babylon. Bel is a title. His name is Marduk.
The Babylonian people used to celebrate and say: Marduk is king. But Isaiah says to Zion, your
God is king (Is. 52:7).

Is. 44:9-20 is the most sustained discussion on idolatry in the Bible. What it says is that a pagan
person cuts down a tree uses half the tree to create his idol and uses the other half of the tree to
cook his food and keep himself warm. He makes this thing from creation to be his god. It can’t do
anything, he needs the Creator. When they made their gods, they made them in the form of a
man. Our idols are a lot like us and then we bow down and worship them and then pray to them
for salvation. They have eyes and ears and mouths but they do not function. They are lifeless
images. The funny thing is that you become just like these lifeless images. You become deaf and
blind and mute.

Here are some words that Isaiah uses for idols in Is. 40-55: “carved statue,” “metal image,”
“pain.” Pain seems like a strange way to describe an idol. It is used because if you worship an
idol, you will suffer the same pain that our first mother and father did when paradise was lost. A
fourth word for an idol is “nothing” (see the book of Eccl) and a fifth is “formless and dark.” Idols
destroy us and take us back to the chaos of the beginning. They are also “an abomination.”

Life in Babylon was such that if you did not bow down and worship Bel and Nebo they would
throw you in the fiery furnace (see Dan. 1-6). What does Babylon do to conquered people? It
gives you a name that relates to their gods in an effort to pressure you to conform and worship
the gods. And if you don’t’ go along with them, they threaten to kill you.

We said last night, you become what you worship. Let’s take a look at Ps. 115 (Ps. 135 says the
same thing about idols). Idols offer everything but deliver nothing. Instead, they bring you
immense pain and heartbreak and torment. Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men (v.
4). They don’t speak or see or hear or smell or feel or walk (vv. 5-7). Those who make idols and
trust in idols become like the idols (v. 8). You become what you worship. Idols strip us
of the ability relate with ourselves, others, and God. You are no longer a person. You are a self-
serving pleasure machine. That is what idolatry does.
 Our object of worship has a direct impact on who we are. If you worship a guy who suffers and
dies for others and who humbly washes the feet of others, you become someone who, in an
imperfect way, dies to self and puts others first. We become little Christs. God conforms us to
the way of Christ. We become broken and poured out for people just like Christ.

In Ex. 32 Israel fell into idolatry when they worshipped the golden calf. This is another example
of people becoming what they worship. In v. 8 it says they turned away quickly and in v. 9 God
describes them as “stiff-necked people.” These are two attributes of cattle. They turn away
quickly and they are stiff-necked. They have become like the object of their worship. Every time
in the Bible, except for one, when the term stiff-necked is used, it is in the context of idolatry. An
example of this is found in Acts 7:51. When he calls the Jews stiff-necked, he is calling them
idolators. The Most High dwells in the person of Christ (v. 48) and any other form of adoration or
worship apart from Christ is idolatry.

Another illustration of this idea of you becoming what you worship is found in Jer. 2:5 and 2
Kings 17:15. Both of these use the same words. They say, they walked after the “nothing” (a
term for an idol) and became nothing.

For Christians, idolatry is usually very subtle. Often idols are not evil in and of themselves. We
make idols out of God-given gifts, such as health or job or family or spouse. But we begin to use
them as substitutes for the real God. A false god is frequently something of value but we
ascribed to it ultimate value. Many times when we lose that idol, our lives completely fall apart
because we have made it of ultimate importance.

There are surface idols like sex, money, and power. But then then there are deep idols. I might
make money my idol in order to gain a better social life, or to make myself beautiful, or to make
myself secure. So there is an idol on the surface but then we use those idols for deeper
purposes. And eventually these idols control us and we become slaves to them. It is called
addiction, obsession, and compulsion. We all have these deities in our lives. They torment us and
if left unchecked (unrepented of), they will destroy us. There is One who will not fail you and
upon which you can build eternity on and that is Jesus Christ, “all other ground is sinking sand.”

Three times in Is. 40-55 Isaiah says get out of Babylon, flee from it. That is getting out of idolatry.
And when you do it, you do it with a shout of joy. He says this in Is. 48:20, 49:9, and 52:11-12.

 Creation is a big theme in Isaiah. God loves all of creation. There are 16 creational (to create)
verbs in Is. 40-55. The verb “to make” is used 24 times. The verb “to form” is used 15 times. Over
and over again Isaiah is talking about the Creator. Why does he do this? Because the Babylonian
god Marduk was declared king because he created the universe. Isaiah counters this claim
repeatedly by saying Yahweh is the Creator not Marduk.

The substitute Servant is called to be the light to the nations, a light shining in a dark place.
 We also have the image of the stars. In Is. 40:26 it says Yahweh created the stars and gives each
one of them a name. He does this in the billions of galaxies each of which has billions of stars. In
this God is transcendent, far above our comprehension. But this God who calls all the stars by
name in Is. 43:1 creates you, forms you, and calls you by name. In this God is imminent and
accessible to each of us.

In Is. 40:12 it asks rhetorical questions. Who can measure the waters and dust of the earth? Who
can lay out the heavens? Who can weigh the mountains and hills? The obvious answer is
Yahweh. Who is this God? He is a God is so strong and mighty that there is nothing he cannot do.

 What we’ve been doing in this class today is look at the big picture of Is. 40-55. Now we are
going to get into more specific texts.

Isaiah 40:1-11
 Is. 40 is the overview of Is. 40-55 and Is. 40:1-11 is the summary of the overview.
 It starts out in Is 40:1 with the familiar words: “Comfort, comfort my people.” We’ve already
talked about “my people” vs. “this people.” These people were God’s people (Ex. 6:7) but then
they broke the covenant by their idolatry and became “this people” of Is. 6:9 [and their cities
were destroyed and they were hauled off to exile.]

But was does “comfort” mean? In Is. 40-55, comfort has a unique definition. In Is. 51:3, the word
comfort is used twice. Strangely Yahweh comforts ruins and rubble. The only way to comfort
ruins and rubble is to rebuild them. The same idea is expressed in Is. 52:9. When the
Babylonians got done with Jerusalem, all there was left was rubble. But they will break forth in
song because God is a rebuilding God. Even when our lives are nothing but ruins and rubble, we
can sing for joy because we have a God who rebuilds the lives of his people.

So comfort involves rebuilding. God comforts with more than just a pat on the back. It is God
saying, I am going to rebuild your ruined life. And that is exactly what happened. The exiles
returned and they rebuilt Jerusalem.
 Is. 40:2 begins with, “Speak upon the heart of Jerusalem.” To speak upon the heart when a guy is
talking to other guys is to “win one for the Gipper.” But when a man is speaking to a woman, it
means the man is trying to court the woman. The woman here is Jerusalem and she is also called
Zion. In Hebrew and in all Semitic languages, cities are always feminine. So God is courting his
estranged wife who are the exiles who feel like they have been abandoned and divorced by
Yahweh and have no hope and no future. This is what Boaz does to Ruth. He speaks upon her
heart and gives her hope.

To speak upon the heart is the husband doing everything he can to convince the wife that he
loves her. So in this section it is Yahweh, the husband, trying to convince Israel, the wife, that she
still means something to him, and in fact, not just something but everything. Your English
versions might say to speak tenderly or lovingly. Jesus speaks this way when he speaks of the
 bridegroom (Jesus) coming to get his bride (the church).

Continuing in v. 2, “that her debt-service is ended” or “her warfare has ended.” What does that
mean? The enemy has been defeated. Who is the enemy? Babylon. Babylon is going down (Is.
47). She doesn’t have to fight her enemies anymore because Yahweh is going to fight for her. Or
if it is “her debt-service is ended,” that takes us back to this notion of kinsman-redeemer. What
did we say the kinsman-redeemer does? If you were in debt, he pays it off. If you were in slavery,
he frees you. If you lost tribal inheritance, he gets it back for you. Yahweh is the Redeemer of
Israel. So if it is debt-service then it points us to God being the Redeemer who returns them to
their land. And if it is warfare, it points us to God being the fighter for his people. And since it is
poetry, it probably has a double meaning. It means both.

Going on in v. 2, “her iniquity is pardoned, she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for
all her sins.” Double what? Some preach double judgment. No, it is not double judgment. What
is the only thing doubled in the context of Is. 40:1-2? Double comfort. The people believe that
they have lost everything or that God doesn’t exist or if he does exist he doesn’t care or have the
power or he doesn’t love us anymore, but Yahweh says, No to all that. I am going to restore you.

 We’ve referenced Is. 40:3 before. “Prepare the way for Yahweh.” Yahweh is coming back.

 Then Is. 40:4-5. V. 4 -“Every valley will be lifted up, every mountain and hill will be made low; the
rough places will become level, the crooked places a plain.” V. 5 – “And the glory of Yahweh will
be revealed, and all flesh will see it together because the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”

As we said earlier, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all begin to talk about Jesus using Is. 40:3-4.
But one of the evangelists goes into v. 5 where it talks about the glory of the Lord. And that
evangelist is Luke. In Luke 3:4-6, Luke quotes from Is. 40:3-5. In doing so he is saying that Jesus is
Yahweh coming back for his people in bondage. Jesus is enacting Is. 40-55. Jesus is going to be
the Suffering Servant. When Luke quotes Is. 40:3-5, he brings along with it all of Is. 40-55. Why
does Luke carry it through to all flesh will see the glory of God and Matthew, Mark, and John
don’t? Luke is the only Gentile author in the NT. All flesh includes the Gentiles. His message is,
Christ has come for all people.

 A key word in Is. 40:6-8 is chesed. It is commonly translated as steadfast love and faithfulness.
Chesed is used about 250 times in the OT. Of those times, 60 times it is used in a secular context,
when one person does chesed to another person as opposed to a religious context where God is
doing chesed to us. In those 60 verses, we would find these attributes. And then we can use
them to better understand God’s chesed to us. Or said another way, we can look at chesed on a
horizontal level and then look at it on a vertical level.

Horizontally there are two characteristics of chesed. First, chesed is a person getting involved in
a relationship when they don’t have to. I don’t have to get into a relationship but I choose to. An
example might be having kids. Secondly, in chesed I am staying in the relationship even when
everyone else tells me I should get out. Chesed is getting in when I don’t have to and staying in
when everything is going wrong. [I am committed no matter what. That is what a marriage is
supposed to be.] That is what chesed is on a horizontal level.

Isaiah’s message in Is. 40:7-8 about chesed is that all of our chesed is like the flowers and grass
of the field. We make great statements of commitment but many times we don’t follow through.
We are like grass withering and flowers fading. When is the next use of chesed in Is. 40-55?
When will we see chesed that is not like the grass that withers? That will come after the
Suffering Servant pours out his life to death and is raised again. The next used of chesed is in Is.
54:8. Yahweh says in a flood of anger he hid his face from them for a short time (70 years). But in
everlasting chesed Yahweh, their Redeemer, will have mercy on his people. This is God saying, I
don’t have to get involved with you but I will. And there is time after time where everyone else
would just give up on you, but instead I have and will continue to stick with you. My
commitment to you is to stick by you forever no matter what. Why? Because of the Suffering
Servant. (We have to stop here for tonight.)
Lesson #4 (Duration 2:21:17)
Review from Lesson #3 with a few new things (for the first 68 minutes)
 The two servants in Is. 40-55 are the nation of Israel and the substitute Servant. Israel fails as a
servant, so a second servant is needed.
 A diagram about typology shows God’s Word on top and several tornadoes coming from the
Word, which are powerful and touch down at various points. God sent prophets to speak his
Word. There is an initial fulfillment but then there is a greater fulfilment in Christ.

Let’s take Eze. 37 as an example. Ezekiel sees a valley for dry bones. Ezekiel prophesies and the
Spirit of God comes into the bones and they come to life. When was that fulfilled? The first
fulfillment was Cyrus’s decree to let Israel return. Israel was dead as a nation, but soon some
would return and the nation would come back to life. Later Ezra led a second return, so that was
a second fulfillment. The third fulfillment was Christ being literally dead coming back to life. The
fourth fulfillment was you and I being baptized. In it we who were dead were brought back to
life. A fifth fulfillment will occur when Christ returns and the bodies of all people will be raised
for the life to come.

In typology then, the Word of God touches down at different times in human history and is
fulfilled. And that is the way that most typology is applied to Christians.
 As opposed to typology, what is rectilinear prophecy? This kind of prophesy is a straight line to
Jesus. It differs from typology in that there are no other places where God’s Word touches down
and is fulfilled.
 When we read scripture, we have to discern if it is rectilinear or typology. So for instance, the
first Servant Song. Which one is it? It is typology because initially it refers to Israel. But it also
refers to Christ. How do we know that? Matt. 12 quotes Is. 42:1-4 and applies it to Jesus.
 Which of the servant songs are rectilinear and refer only to Christ? Songs 2, 3, and 4.
 How does righteousness assist us in following Isaiah’s story of the two servants? Yahweh called
Israel in righteousness. How does Israel or anyone else become righteous? By having faith in
Yahweh. The first person who believed and God credited it to him as righteousness was
Abraham. But Israel became deaf, dumb, and blind because they became idolators. They lost
their righteous standing with Yahweh by unrepentant idolatry. So Yahweh called a substitute
Servant who would be righteous and restore and justify Israel (and others) to Yahweh. And all
who have been made righteous, who have been given the righteousness of Yahweh, by the
Servant become servants themselves.

Paul’s understanding of the free gift of righteousness by faith for the Servant’s sake, which
means that God has declared me to be righteous because of the Servant, comes from Is. 40-55
and especially Is. 54:17. 2 Cor. 5:16 ff into chpt. 6 shows that Paul has thoroughly read and
understands and believes the Is. 40-55 program. And we will look at all of this when we get to
the fourth Servant Song.

But right now we want to look at some aspects of the fourth Servant Song. We want to look at
 2Cor 5:21 but to do that we first need a little background on Is. 53:9-10. In v. 9 it says “he had
done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” (This means he was without sin.) It
continues in v. 10, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his
soul makes an offering for guilt,…” So the Servant was without sin and God made his life a guilt
offering.

Paul takes these two ideas and writes one of the most important verses in the Bible, what Luther
called the great exchange. We find it in 2 Cor 5:21 which says: “For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is Paul’s
reflection on Is. 53:9-10 in terms of our discussion of righteousness. The Servant who had no sin
became the guilt offering for us. And he did this so that “we might become the righteousness of
God.” That is the great exchange. I give Jesus my sin and he gives me his perfect righteousness.
And that really sums up what is going on in Isaiah’s narrative of the two servants.

This understanding of righteousness is what ignited Luther’s reformation. I give Christ my

ugliness and he gives me his beauty. I give him my thirst and he gives me living water. I give him
my darkness and he gives me his light. I give him my death and he gives me resurrection. The
whole faith is the great exchange. All of this is described in 2 Cor. 5:21, which is a nice
commentary on this act of righteousness in Is. 40-55.
 How does the Holy Spirit connect the Davidic deliverer and the substitute Servant? Within first
century Palestinian Judaism, did they believe in the Suffering Servant? Yes. Did they believe
there would be a Davidic deliverer who would come and destroy their enemies? Sure they did.
The problem was that no first century Jewish group (there were over 100 of them) connected
the Davidic deliverer and the substitute Servant except for one and that was the Jewish sect
called the Nazarenes.

It was the Christians who first announced that Jesus was both the Davidic Deliverer and the
Substitute Servant. One person was both. That set Christianity apart from Judaism in the first
century.

How do we see this in Isaiah? In Is. 48:1 God rejected Israel because of their lack of
righteousness. But also in chpt. 48 there is someone saying in the first person, I have been sent
by Yahweh by means of his Spirit. That means the substitute Servant is Spirit-driven. Who else is
Spirit-driven in the book of Isaiah? The Davidic deliverer (Is. 11:2-3). He is the perfect possessor
of the Spirit. By the Holy Spirit the Davidic deliverer would come with power and defeat their
enemies. But the Suffering Servant was also Spirit-driven.

Scholars call Is. 61:1-3 the fifth Servant Song. And this song makes it crystal clear that this is the
suffering substitute Servant and he has been endowed with the Spirit. Who used this for his first
sermon text? Jesus. Jesus was anointed with the Spirit at his baptism. Led by the Spirit, Jesus is
both the Servant and the Davidic King. At the time of Jesus, no one made this connection that
the Servant and the Davidic Deliverer were the same person. When Jesus washed the disciples’
feet (the posture of a servant), Peter tried to stop him. Why? Because the disciples believed
Jesus to be the strong Davidic king who would throw off all their enemies, not some weak
 servant who suffers. Even after Jesus died and rose and was about to ascend into heaven, the
disciples asked Jesus if he was about to restore the kingdom of Israel. They still had not
connected the fact that the Davidic deliver and the Suffering Servant were one person. The Holy
Spirit had to enlighten them and us that these two people were really one in Christ.

So the NT comes and people see Jesus doing powerful things and they see him serving others
and then they reread Isaiah where it talks about a Davidic Deliverer and a Suffering Servant and
they put two and two together and realize that in Jesus both roles are fulfilled. This is Isaiah’s
gospel message.
 Isaiah refers to idols in a number of ways. He calls them “pain” (first used in the Bible in Gen. 3,
childbirth and job), “dark and empty” (Gen. 1:2, formless, empty, chaotic), “nothing” (Gen. 4,
Abel’s name; used extensively in Eccl.).
 Babylon’s strategy to make people conform was to rename you. Today in our consumer society
we are renamed self-serving pleasure machines. Why? So we buy more things that we don’t
need, with money that we don’t have, to impress people we don’t even like.

What else does Babylon do? It throws its idols at us. Babylon says Marduk is king. And today our
Babylon says that money, sex, and power are king. It says those are the things that are the keys
to your fulfillment and happiness. Isaiah writes to people who are captives in Babylon.
 What does Ex. 32 teach us about idolatry? Israel is a stiff-necked people who quickly turn to
idolatry. Stiff-necked describes the calf that they worshipped. So you become what you worship.
If I worship something that is inanimate, I become inanimate. I lose my ability to relate to myself
and others and God. What is it that breaks the Sinai covenant? Unrepentant idolatry. Every time
the word stiff-necked is used in the Bible it is in the context of idolatry, with one exception.
 We take good gifts from God and make them ultimate. We take valuable things and make them
supreme. We turn affection into adoration. That is how idolatry works most of the time in our
lives. Christ alone is the One who is ultimate and supreme and to be adored. To put something
or someone else in the place of Christ sets us up for a fall, for disappointment. Christ is a solid
rock to stand upon. Everything else is sinking sand.
 A slide was displayed that summarizes all of Is. 40-55. It shows the following. God is providing a
path, which is the way out of Babylon/idolatry. The gods of Babylon are deaf, dumb, immobile. A
picture of the planet earth reminds that when Israel is restored so also will creation be restored.
The plan of salvation is for all people. A big candle reminds us that the Suffering Servant will a
light to the Gentiles. In the picture are stars. We remember that God calls all of the stars by
name. And not only the stars but us also. In John, the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and calls
them by name. The ziggurat is a reminder that Isaiah is speaking to the people in Babylon. Next
we see that Yahweh can hold all the water of the earth in his hand and weigh all the mountains.
From this we know that God is great and powerful while people are nothing. Finally, the musical
instruments tell us all of creation joins in the hymn of all creation celebrating God’s salvation.
 Comfort, comfort my people means rebuilding.
 Define chesid. First it means, I don’t have to get into a relationship with you, but I still am. And
secondly, when things are going very badly, I stay in it. Yahweh is hopeless devoted to Israel and
you and me. Our chesid is like the grass of the field. It dries up and dies. But God’s chesid is
steadfast love and faithfulness no matter what.
  How do the NT the evangelists employ Is. 40:3-4? They use these verses to launch into Jesus.
John is the voice in the wilderness preparing the way for Yahweh. Which means Yahweh is
coming back. He left his people when they became idolatrous but not for good. He comes back
when he takes on human flesh in the person of Jesus.
 Question from the audience: What does it mean when it says God was going to restore Israel? A
key question when studying the Bible is: Who is Israel? Since no one in Israel could be what
Israel was supposed to be, Israel comes down to One, to Christ. He is the perfect Son of God.
And notice that everything that is true about Christ is true about you his follower. He suffered.
You suffer. He was crucified. You were crucified. He died. You died. He was resurrected. We walk
in newness of life. He is the sinless Son of God. He grants that standing to us. The point is, if
Jesus is Israel, that means the Church is Israel.

Now look at Gal. 6:16. Paul’s whole argument in Galatians is that neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision counts for anything but a new creation. It does not matter whether they are Jew
or Greek, slave or free. All are one in Christ. God has taken Jew and Gentile and created “one
new man.” That new man is “the Israel of God.”

So Jesus is Israel and the Church is Israel. When Jesus is restored on Easter morning, that brings
about our restoration.
 In Is. 40-55 it moves from exodus to the new creation. What Paul does in 2 Cor. 5:16-17 is take
this and say that we too are captives. We are captive to Satan and death and self. And just like
the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt through water, so we make our exodus from
captivity through the waters of baptism. We are baptized into the death and resurrection and
new life in Christ. We become a new creation. So we too have been delivered from bondage. We
too have had our own exodus. And that comes through baptism.

Isaiah 40:1-11 (continuation)

 We left off last night looking at Is. 40:1-11. We got through v. 6 where it says that our chesid, our
loyal love, is like the grass of the field. V. 7 continues to describe our chesid. It withers and fades.
He shows that it is transitory by using the word “grass” four times in two verses. For emphasis he
repeats “the grass withers, the flower fades.” In direct opposition to our transitory chesid, the
word of God stands forever.

“Forever” is a key word in Is. 40-55. So let’s track that. In Is. 40:28 Yahweh is the everlasting
God, which means his word is everlasting. Then we turn to Is. 54:8 where it says that Yahweh’s
chesid is forever. And in Is. 54:10 Yahweh says his chesid will not depart from Israel (meaning
forever) and Yahweh’s covenant of peace (Noahic covenant) shall not be removed. It will last
forever. In Is. 55:3 it speaks of the everlasting covenant Yahweh made with David in which
Yahweh shows his everlasting chesid for David.

Yahweh will have everlasting love for Israel and will redeem them from Babylon, but Babylon will
not take it lying down. Is. 47 describes the downfall of Babylon. Yahweh was angry with his wife
and gave her over to Babylon and Babylon said, “I will be mistress forever” (Is. 47:7). Babylon
opposes Yahweh’s claim that he is forever, his word is forever, his chesid is forever and his
 covenant is forever. So the question is, who will win out and stand forever? It also catches your
ear in Is. 47:7 when Babylon says, “I am.” But there is only one I AM and it is Yahweh. So Babylon
claims to be forever, but it’s not.

 In Is. 40:8 it says “the word of our God will stand forever.” How will the program of Is. 40-55,
which is Cyrus getting Israel out of Babylon and the substitute Servant getting Babylon out of
Israel, happen? It will happen because of the power of God’s word. We see this in Is. 40:8 and Is.
55:10-11. They tell us that God’s word is powerful and effective.

So in Is. 40:8 we have the connection with “forever” and we also have the word of God
connection with Is. 55:10-11. There are only two things in this world that will last forever. They
are God’s word and people. So the greatest investment in life is getting God’s word into people.
That is all that is going to last.

 Now Is. 40:9. Dr. Lessing translates it as: “Upon a high mountain get up, O Gospeler, Zion…”
along with “O Evangelist, Jerusalem…” Zion and Jerusalem are not being evangelized. They are
the evangelists! This is the first place in the Bible where you have the word “gospel” used in a
theological sense – the good news from God for people.

Zion and Jerusalem are to be the gospelers – speakers of good news. And Zion and Jerusalem
stand for the exiles. Remember that Is. 40:1-11 is an overview of Is. 40-55. Now, are these
people who are exile in any position to be evangelists? No, because they cannot see and they
cannot hear! So they have nothing to tell anyone. That means that right now in their current
state and condition they are not evangelists. This is who they will become.

God loves to do this. He doesn’t tell us who we are. He tells us what we are becoming. For
instance, He tells Abram he will become Abraham (father of many), or Jacob becomes Israel (let
God rule). Jesus calls Simon-bar-Jonah Peter (the rock). Peter doesn’t become a rock until later in
Acts. Quite often God likes to tell us what we are going to be, not who we are.

So God is not telling the exiles what they are, because right now they are caught up in idolatry.
He is telling them what they are going to become – gospelers. And what will be their message?
Is. 53. This is the fourth Servant Song (Is. 52:13 – 53:12). “Who has believed our report?” And in
v. 4 it talks about “our sickness” and “our pains.” And in v. 6, “we all like sheep have gone astray.”
What is the evangelist’s message? Is. 53. The suffering Servant is coming to save us from our sin
sickness and its effects. This is Good News!

Back to Is. 40:9. “Lift up your voice with power, O Gospeler, Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” This isn’t just any god. This is “your God.” In the use
of just a few words, “Behold your God,” we have the main message of Is. 40-55. They have been
beholding the Babylonian gods. But now they are to “behold your God.”

 Then we get to the fantastic verses of Is. 40:10 and 11. They answer the question, who is your
God? V. 10: “Behold Lord Yahweh will come.” That’s the whole idea. Yahweh is coming back.
 Build a highway for him. “He is coming with his arm ruling for him.” The first time the Bible talks
about God’s strong arm is in Ex. 6:6. There God says to Moses, “… I will redeem you with an
outstretched arm … .” We are always within God’s reach in order that he might bring us back.
There are many allusions to Exodus in Is. 40-55 and this is one of the most important of them. In
Is. 40:10 it says God’s arm is ruling for him. Because he has won the battle with his mighty arm,
to the victor belongs the spoils. That is his reward and recompense.

How will this come about? Turn to Is. 53:12. When God comes with his ruling arm as a mighty
conqueror and wins the victory, he is going to divide the spoil of his victory with all of his people.
What do the spoils consist of? Forgiveness, life, salvation, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 In Is. 40:9, it said, “Behold your God!” Who is their God? The use of “arm” tells us about their
God. In v. 10 it is a strong, mighty, ruling arm. But what kind of arm is it in v. 11? It is a gentle,
gathering arm of a shepherd. He gathers the little, newborn, vulnerable lambs and carries them
close to his chest. This arm is tender, compassionate arm.

Vv. 10 and 11 are the preview of the use of “arm” in Is. 40-55. Let’s take a look and see how
“arm” is used in this section. Take a look at Is. 52:10: “Yahweh lays bare his holy arm.” Which use
of arm is this? The strong, mighty arm. He laid his arm bare in the first exodus and he is about to
do so again in a second exodus. For another use of arm, look at Is. 53:1 ff. This use of arm is the
tender, compassionate use of arm. In looking at the substitute Servant, there is no hint of great
power.

In 2 Cor. 12:9 Jesus told Paul, “my power is made perfect in weakness.” The paradox of power
and weakness come together in Jesus at the cross.

 Back to Is. 40:9-11. The gospel that Zion and Jerusalem are to proclaim is, “Behold your God!”
Who is their God? He is the strong God of v. 10 and the compassionate God of v. 11. And the fact
is that sinful man needs both. If God is this sovereign, all-powerful, majestic God, that’s good but
what about each of us? And if God is this compassionate, loving God who bleeds and dies for us,
but he doesn’t have power to defeat our enemies, what good is that? In the great hymn Holy,
Holy, Holy, we sing that God is merciful and mighty. He is both. We need both. He is tender and
tough. He is sovereign and saving. That is your God and that is Good News! These verses in Is. 40
end the prologue and the rest of the verses in Is. 40-55 unpack Is. 40:9-11.

Is. 40:12 – 41:29

 Before we get to the first Servant Song, let us, in a cursory sort of way, summarize what happens
between the prologue (Is. 40:1-11) and the first Servant Song (Is. 42:1-9). In the rest of Is. 40 (vv.
12-31), we have the strong arm of Yahweh.

 Then in Is. 41 God introduces Cyrus. He does not do it by name. He does it very subtly in a
hidden way. In Is. 41:2, Who is from the east, who wins victory, who defeats nations, and who
tramples kings? It is Cyrus.
 Archeology unearthed in 1879 a piece called the Cyrus Cylinder. The Cylinder details the
downfall of Babylon in Oct. of 539 BC. It also details the last Babylonian king. His name was
Nabonidus (writing on the wall in Daniel). This shows that there really was a Cyrus and Babylon
did fall in 539 BC. And from other documents that archeologists have found, we learn that he
allowed people from defeated nations to return to their ancestral homelands exactly as Isaiah
predicts in Is. 41, 44, and 45. So a lot of Is. 41 discusses Cyrus and God’s use of him without
actually naming him.

Also in Is. 41 there are several literary trials. These are not historical trials. Isaiah uses these
mock trials to mock the Babylonians and especially their deities. Is. 41:29, the final verse of the
chapter, gives us the final verdict on Babylon’s gods. “Behold, they are all a delusion; their works
are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.”

Is. 42:1-4 – The First Servant Song

 In Is. 42:1 Yahweh says, Behold my servant. From our discussions so far, we know he is talking
about Israel. Yahweh will put his Spirit on Israel. And in your English versions it will say
something like: “he will bring forth justice to the nations.” But “justice” is not a good rendering
of the Hebrew in this context. In this context it means “verdict.” The verdict Israel is to deliver to
the nations is what Yahweh said in Is. 41:29: their idols are worthless. We are invited to read Is.
41:29 and Is. 42:1 together because they both begin with “behold.” Behold God’s verdict is that
the idols are nothing and behold it is Israel’s job as his servant is to bring this verdict to the
nations.

 How will Israel, the servant of God, spread this verdict? Is. 42:2 says he will do it with humility.
And when Israel sees people of other nations who are hurting, they are not to hammer them.
They are to have compassion for them. They are to calmly tell the verdict (Is. 42:3). It is all about
exposing idols as frauds. He will continue to spread the news about the verdict to the world and
tell everyone about Yahweh’s teaching (torah, not law; Is. 42:4). The goal is to have one nation
in the world that will call out the other nations in a humble, kind, forgiving way and tell them
that their gods are worthless (the verdict that God has pronounced).

That was what Israel was called to do. But Israel doesn’t do this very well. Why not? Because
they are idolators themselves (see Is. 42:18-19).

 Is. 42:5-9 is sometimes called the trailer which explains the first Servant Song. So in vv. 1-4
Yahweh is speaking about the servant nation and in vv. 5-9, he is speaking to the servant nation.
What undergirds this call to announce the verdict? Yahweh, who is the Creator and Giver of life
(v. 5). He calls them in righteousness to be a light to the nations (v. 6). But they will have a hard
time being a light because they too live in darkness. Because of this, Yahweh calls a substitute
Servant. And being their substitute, he too is called to be a light to the nations (Is. 49:6). He will
do what Israel could not.
 Continuing with v. 7 of Is. 42, the servant, Israel, is to open the eyes of the blind. In the book of
Isaiah, blindness is caused by idolatry. How do you open the eyes of blind, idolatrous people?
Tell them the verdict about their gods – they are nothing. Through their idolatry, the nations
have made themselves prisoners who sit in darkness.

And since Yahweh is the only true God, he will not give his glory to any other “gods.” He will not
let idols receive the praise that he deserves (v. 8). If there was any question if this was really
about idolatry, v. 8 confirms that it is.

In v. 9 he mentions the former things and the new things. In chapters 41-48 Yahweh talks a lot
about the former things and the new things. What are these former things and what are the new
things? One of the more famous of these is found in Is. 43:18-19. Looking at these verses, it
seems like Yahweh is saying forget about everything I’ve said up to this point. Forget the past,
look only to the future. But then turn to Is. 46:9 where he says remember the former things.
Which is it? Forget the former things or remember the former things?

The answer is they need to do both. If you only remember the former things, then you are stuck
in the past. It is a faith of nostalgia. It’s not a church, it’s a museum. From this vantage point, God
isn’t doing anything now. He just did it a long time ago. In this way of thinking, it is about history
and what God did in the past and not what he does now. On the other hand, if we forget the
past and only look forward to the new things, we don’t have a way of seeing what God has done
in the past. Instead, you need both. There are times in our lives when we need to recall what has
happened in the past and how God was there for us. But if we get stuck on that, we don’t think
that God can do anything for us right now.

There is a real tension between the present and the past in the Chirstian life. So the Christian can
say, I was baptized (looking at the past) and I am baptized (looking at the present and future).
God did a great thing in my life back when I was baptized but he continues to do good things
now through my baptism.

Back to Is. 42:9. Here Yahweh talks about both the past and the future. Yahweh did great things
for Israel in the past (e.g., the exodus) but he is not limited to the past. He is announcing that he
is going to do great things for them now and in the future (a second exodus). The “you” at the
end of v. 9 is plural. So that confirms that the servant of Yahweh is not one person but the
people of Israel.

An important point in v. 9 is that Yahweh is making known the new things he is going to do
before he does them. What are the new things he is going to do? He is going to raise up Cyrus
and the substitute Servant.

In Between the First Servant Song and the Second Servant Song (Is. 42:10 –
48:22)
 Things go downhill. God keeps reminding the people of Cyrus and the downfall of Babylon (Is.
47). Then in Is. 48, God says, I’ve had it with you unrepentant idolators. Then there is the call in
 Is. 48:20 to get out of Babylon. And if they don’t do it, they won’t have shalom. Many times
shalom is translated as peace. But it is much more than the absence of warfare and fighting.
Shalom is like humpty dumpty. He is broken into a million pieces. Shalom puts the egg back
together. Shalom restores what is broken. A very helpful verse about this is found in Joel 2:25. It
is a good verse that helps us understand shalom. It says, “I will restore to you the years that the
swarming locust has eaten.” The word translated as “restore,” is the verbal form of shalom. “I
will shalom to you the years …” The promise is that Yahweh is going to restore what the locusts
have eaten. What have the locusts eaten? Everything. The point is that shalom restores what is
lost. We are put back together in a provisionary way in this life but in a permanent way in the life
to come.

Babylon promises to give back to you everything you’ve lost. It tells us, you can get your youth
back. You can have a great social life. You can have great sex. It promises everything. It offers you
shalom. But what does Isaiah say about it in Is. 48:22? If you stay in Babylon, “There is no
shalom.” Is. 48:20-22 is the final call of the so-called Cyrus cycle because in Is. 49:1 we begin the
substitute Servant cycle.

The Second Servant Song

 The second Servant Song is really about Christ. It is a rectilinear prophecy. Beginning in Is. 49:1, it
is the substitute Servant speaking. He says that Yahweh called him “from the womb” and
“named my name” (Immanuel, Prince of Shalom). In Isaiah, the baby Jesus is spoken of many
times. He will be born of a virgin (Is. 7:14). In Is. 9, it talks about a son whom will rule. So this ties
in nicely with earlier messianic prophecies in Isaiah.

 In Is. 49:2, the Servant says Yahweh made his mouth like a sharp sword. What does that mean?
How does Jesus defeat the enemy? With his words. This comports nicely with the Davidic
Deliverer and the Suffering Servant. How does the Davidic Deliverer defeat his enemies? Is. 11:4
says, “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall
kill the wicked.” All he has to do is say the word and his enemies are defeated. It is the same
image in Rev. 19, where the Lord Christ has a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his
mouth. And Heb. 4:12 says God’s Word is sharper than any double-edged sword. The Servant is
the same person and he bears this same sword – the Word of God.

There are several places where Jesus says one word and it immediately happens. When he said,
Ephphatha (be opened) the deaf man’s ears were opened and he could hear (Mk. 7:34). In Mk.
4:39, Jesus commands the wind and sea, “Be still!” and the wind ceased and it was calm. In John
19:30, Jesus said, “It is finished,” which means all of the OT promises are fulfilled in Christ. That
is why the Roman centurion says in Matt. 8, Only say the word and my servant will be healed.
That is why Luther said, One little word will fell him (the devil). That word is Jesus. Eph. 6:17 calls
the Word of God the sword of the Spirit.

So the Servant will go to battle and the weapon he uses is his Word, which acts like a sharp
sword. Using the Word is not the way that we normally think is the way to defeat enemies.
 [We have to stop here for the night. Tomorrow night we will do a shorter review and then we
will finish the second Song and go through the third and fourth Songs. And we will spend some
time on Isaiah’s influence on Luke/Acts.]

Lesson #5 (duration 2:31:36)

Review of the Previous Night
 Isaiah links the Davidic Deliverer and the Suffering Servant as one person by the Holy Spirit.
The Davidic Deliverer in Is. 11 has the seven-fold gift of the Spirit. And in Is. 48:16 the Servant
says Yahweh sent him endowed with the Spirit. And again in Is. 61:1 the Servant says, “The Spirit
of Lord Yahweh is upon me.” In one person, Jesus is at the same time the Davidic Deliverer and
the Suffering Servant.
 Discuss “eternal” in Is. 40-55. What and who is eternal? Yahweh is the everlasting God (Is.
40:28). Babylon claims that it is eternal (Is. 47:7). The word of God stands forever (Is. 40:8). The
covenant mercies given to David are eternal (Is. 55:3). Yahweh’s steadfast love (chesed) is
everlasting (Is. 54:8).
 How does Zion/Jerusalem become a herald of the gospel? Zion is a mess. She believes that
Yahweh has left her and divorced her. But he has not divorced her. She must first be restored
before she can be a gospeler. And that restoration will be done through Cyrus (gets Israel out of
Babylon) and the Suffering Servant (gets Babylon out of Israel). Zion is restored in Is. 54:1-17.
Zion, who was pictured as a barren woman, will be barren no more.

In Israel’s history, Sarai was barren. So the whole plan for the mission and evangelization of the
world starts with a barren woman. The point is this: when God wants to do something really,
really big, he starts out with nothing. Rebekah was also barren and so was Rachel. At one time all
three matriarchs of Israel were barren. This is how the kingdom of God advances. It advances
through stigmatized, worthless, marginalized people. Hannah was barren before she had
Samuel. Elizabeth was barren before she had John. So the idea is this, if you have a barren
woman in the Bible, something big is going to happen.

So God works with nothing. In Phil. 2, Paul says that even though Jesus was God, he made
himself nothing. Now back to Isaiah. Zion has nothing. She is sitting in exile in Babylon. She views
herself as a barren woman whom God has divorced. But just when she is and has nothing, God
will give her everything. This is how God works. Yahweh + absolutely nothing = absolutely
everything. So God will take Zion in her nothingness and restore her. And then she can become a
herald of good news. What will be her testimony? Her testimony will be what the substitute
Servant has done for us (Is. 53). The One who was despised and rejected carried our griefs and
sorrows. He was pierced and crushed for our iniquities. He took upon himself our punishment.

 Explain Yahweh’s use of his arm. In Is. 40:9 Isaiah said, Behold your God. And then went on to
describe their God as One with a powerful, ruling arm (v. 10) and a tender, gathering arm (v. 11).
We see the mighty arm again in Is. 52:10. We see the compassionate arm again in Is. 53:1, one of
the Suffering Servant Songs. Our God is merciful and mighty. He is tough and tender. He is
 sovereign and saving. And we need both. The words “Behold your God,” who is strong and
compassionate, is the main theme of Is. 40-55. This is said to a people who are idolators. But
idols will not suffer for you. Idols don’t bleed and sweat for you. Idols don’t die for you. But this
God will do all of that for you in Christ.

You might call the strong ruling arm God’s exodus arm because it was first there that God’s arm
is described in that way. God used his powerful arm to force pharaoh and the Egyptians to let his
people go.

 What is the verdict the servant nation is called to declare? They are to say to the nations, Your
idols are nothing (Is. 41:29).

 In the first Servant Song (Is.42:1-4) for the first time (Is. 42:9) it talks about the former things
God has done and the new things that God declares he is going to do. And this idea of former
and new things continues into Is. 48. The problem is this, first God says don’t remember the
former things (Is. 43:18) but then he says to remember the former things (Is. 46:9). So do you
forget them or remember them? We said the answer is both. There is a tension between
remembering and not remembering the former things.

The long-ago event of the exodus needs to be remembered because it can buoy their confidence
that they have a powerful God who has acted for them. But in another sense, they need to
forget about it. They cannot live in the past. He not only worked in the past, but he can do so for
them again now.

This is the beauty of Lutheran worship because in it God comes to us now and works for us right
now. When you are absolved of your sins, that is something God is doing right now. In the
Eucharist, when you receive the body and blood of Jesus, you receive it right now. God has
worked for us in the past but he is also working for us right now.

 Define shalom. Shalom is restoration. Many translate it as peace or prosper (as in Jer. 29:11).
But shalom is more than that. Shalom is God rebuilding what we’ve lost. That rebuilding won’t
be finished until Christ’s second coming.

 What is the substitute Servant’s weapon? We learned about this in the second Servant Song in
Is. 49:2. His weapon is his word. The word of the Lord stands forever and it does what it says. It
will not return to him empty.

Where else do we have this idea of the Word working? This is another connecting link between
the Davidic Messiah and the Suffering Servant. Both of them will use the Word to defeat their
enemies. They simply say the word and it happens. It is just like Yahweh. In Gen. 1, God said, Let
there be light, and there was light. We see this with Jesus in Rev. 19 where out of his mouth
comes a sharp double-edged sword. Also in the Gospels Jesus defeats the enemy by simply
saying the word. On the cross Jesus said the word, It is finished, meaning the whole plan of
salvation is fulfilled.
 God gives Christians this same weapon. He gives us the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of
God. (1) We are to hear the Word (2) but to get a good grip on the Bible we need to do more. (2)
We are to not only hear it but also read it. In Duet. 17:19, it says a king should read the torah all
the days of his life. So we hear the word and read the word, but even more, (3) we need to study
it. In Acts 17 the Bereans studied the word. (4) It also helps to memorize God’s word. Jos. 1:8
and Ps. 1:2 talk about meditating on this word day and night. (5) Finally we are to do God’s word
(James 1:22). We don’t want to be only hearers but also doers. That’s how you get a grip on
God’s word.

Second Servant Song – Is. 49:1-13 (continued)

 We resume where we left off last night in the second Servant Song. The Song itself is Is. 49:1-6
and then the explanation of it is in Is. 49:7-13.
 What we want to focus on is in 49:4, where the substitute Servant (Jesus, the pre-incarnate
Savior of the world) speaks. He expresses frustration that what he has done has been done in
vain. That frustration will intensify in the third Servant Song when he is rejected and scorned.
And then in the fourth Servant Song they kill him.

This Song is foundational for St. Paul. Paul says that he was set apart at birth (Gal. 1:15). Paul
echoes the phrase “I labored in vain.” He says this in Gal. 2 and 4 and in 1 Cor. 15:58 and in Phil.
2 and 1 Thess. 3. Paul also quotes from the explanation (Is. 49:8) of the second Servant Song in 2
Cor. 6:2.

Paul quotes Is. 49:6 in Acts 13:47. He is on his first missionary journey, in Pisidian Antioch, in a
synagogue. Paul says, “the Lord has commanded us.” “Us” is Paul and Barnabas. And then he
quotes Isaiah “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends
of the earth.’” We’ve said that Is. 49:1-6 is about Jesus the substitute Servant. This verse that
Paul quoted was said to the Servant. But now Paul is applying it to himself and Barnabas. Why is
he doing that?

To answer that, we turn to Is. 53:10. It says the substitute Servant will see his offspring. So the
Servant will bring forth offspring who will follow in his footsteps and also be suffering servants.
So Paul sees himself as one of these suffering servants of Yahweh whose righteousness comes
from Yahweh.

So what does that mean for us? That means we have been baptized as suffering servants. We are
offspring of the Servant. We’ve been born again, born from above and so what is true of the
substitute Servant is in some way also true of us. We are not sin bearers for the world, but we
are called to be a light to the Gentiles and to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Since we
are baptized into the Suffering Servant that becomes our call as well.

What Happens Between the Second Song (Is. 49:1-13) and the Third Servant
Song (Is. 50:4-10)
  Zion says in Is. 49:14, I don’t believe it. Yahweh has forsaken me and forgotten about me. And
Yahweh responds in Is. 50:1-3 saying, No I didn’t. I didn’t divorce you.

Third Servant Song – Is. 50:4-11

 The third Song is Is. 50:4-9 with Is. 50:10-11 provided as an explanation.
 These verses have “Adonai Yahweh,” which is Lord Yahweh, four times (vv. 4, 5, 7, 9). Who is
directing the Servant? Who is the Servant directing all the attention to? Lord Yahweh. Similarly,
when we were baptized, we were baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Like the Servant, it’s not about us. It’s about God. John the Baptist puts it this way:
He must increase and I must decrease. As you read the third Servant Song, keep this in mind.
 In v. 4 the word “taught” is used twice. If you are being taught, you listen attentively. But we
have said that those who are caught in idolatry are deaf, dumb, and blind. The Servant is the
opposite. Every morning he gets up and listens. So he is the perfect learner, the perfect disciple.

Note that the word “taught” is used in Is. 54:13 when speaking of Israel’s restoration. This verse
is part of the explanation of the fourth Servant Song. It says, “All your children shall be taught by
Yahweh.” So the Servant has open ears and that will be true for his followers. The barren one will
have children and they will be taught. So part of the restoration is becoming a disciple who hears
what is being taught. Discipleship is not quick and easy. It happens over a lifetime.
 The Servant is the perfect disciple who learns what he is taught and he uses that word to sustain
the weary (Is. 50:4). Now the word “weary” is a thematic word in Is. 40-55. At the end of Is. 40,
in vv. 28-31, the word weary is used multiple times. It says Yahweh does not grow weary or faint.
He gives strength to the weary. Even the young and strong grow weary. The exiles are weary and
tired. But if they wait on Yahweh, he will give them strength. To wait on the Lord means, “don’t
do anything stupid.” What is the stupid thing to do in Babylon? Become an idolator.

Year after year for 70 years nothing happened. They became weary. But rather than give up and
become an idolator, they needed to wait on Yahweh. If they do, he will renew their strength and
cause them to soar like eagles. Eagles is Exodus imagery (Ex. 19:4). So if they wait on the Lord,
the return home will be like flying like an eagle.

How did they get weak and weary? Look at Is. 44:12, which is in Is. 44:9-20, a satirical section
against the idolators. V. 12 talks about an ironsmith fashioning an idol “with his strong arm.” The
idolator thinks he is God. What is the result of this? He grows hungry and thirsty; he loses his
strength and becomes faint. The words used here in Is. 44:12 are the same words used in Is. 40
for weary and faint. Idolatry makes a person weak and weary because the god being served is
never satisfied.

Many times idolatry is taking something good and making it into something ultimate. According
to Dr. Lessing, his idolatry is writing books. He never thought he would write a book but in 2004
he did. He writes books and then reads them to see how good they are. And he is very proud of
them. After one book is written, it’s not long when he wants to write another book. There is
nothing wrong with writing theological books but it can turn into an idol real quick. And we can
grow weak and weary because that desire for fame is never satisfied. You can never please an
 idol. Idols destroy us. All we can do is repent and go to Jesus. He says, Come unto me all you who
are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. We become weak and weary because we
cannot satisfy these gods.

The point in this third Servant Song is that the Servant has a word to sustain the weary (Is. 50:4).
The weary are all those who are caught up in idolatry. John Calvin used to say the human heart is
a perpetual idol factory. Luther says that whatever your heart clings to is really your god. And if
we are honest, our hearts cling to a lot of things that are not Jesus. The Servant doesn’t reject us
for our idolatry. He speaks a word to sustain the weary.

 In Is. 50:4-5, Yahweh, the Teacher, opens the ear of the Servant Disciple. This is contrasted with
Israel who can’t open their ears (Is. 48:8). Fascination with counterfeit gods cuts off all
communication between Yahweh and his people (Is. 50:6, 9, 10). In the Servant/Disciple, Israel
and Yahweh are reconciled. The righteous Servant will justify many. Those who listen to the
Disciple’s voice, begin to walk in the light (Is. 50:11).

Look at how this Servant Song is explained in Is. 50:10. Those who do not fear Yahweh and do
not obey the Servant’s voice walk in deep darkness. They are invited to listen to the word that
sustains the weary, repentant idolators. That is the best we can do in this life – be repentant
idolators.

Going back to v. 4, the Servant learns by listening. And then in v. 5, Yahweh opened his ear and
the Servant was not rebellious. He didn’t turn his back on Yahweh like Israel. How else does he
learn? He learns not only by grasping God’s word. He also learns a lot by suffering (Is. 50:6).
Luther said he learned to be a good theologian by the suffering heaped on him by the devil and
the papacy. We as Christians learn by suffering, being rejected, being misunderstood.

Of course v. 6 is a rectilinear prophecy. Who else was whipped? Who else gave his cheeks to
have his beard pulled out? Who else was despised and spit on than Jesus. Who else set his face
like flint (v. 7)? Who else was the perfect Disciple? Who else can sustain idolators with a word?

Between the Third and Fourth Servant Songs (Is. 51 – 52:12)

 In Is. 51 there is a lot on Zion’s restoration.
 Is. 52:7-10 is really a center-piece of Is. 40-55. In v. 7 we have the beautiful feet of those that
bring good news. We have “Your God reigns.” In v. 8 Yahweh is returning to Zion. In v. 9, the ruins
of Jerusalem are rejoicing because Yahweh is restoring/redeeming Israel. In v. 10 all the nations
will see the salvation of Israel by Yahweh. These verses are filled with great promises which
encapsulate a lot of the themes in this section of Isaiah.
 Then in vv. 11 and 12 it says, it’s time to get out of Babylon.
 All of this prefaces the fourth Servant Song.

Fourth Servant Song (Is. 52:13 – Is. 53:12)

 In the fourth Song, the Servant begins really, really high (Is. 52:13). He is high and exalted. Those
are words that only describe Yahweh in the book of Isaiah. Then he goes really, really low (Is.
52:14ff). And then at the end of the fourth Servant Song he is highly exalted again (Is. 53:10-12).
So the movement is from high to low to high. We see that same thing in the Apostle’s and
Nicene Creeds. This is Phil. 2:6-11. This is the heart of the Christian faith and it comes from the
fourth Servant Song.
 Luther wrote that the fourth Servant Song was the foremost passage in Scripture on the
suffering and passion of Christ and therefore we should memorize it.
 Here is an outline of the fourth Servant Song. Yahweh describes the Servant’s exaltation. Then he
reports on the Servant’s humiliation. But then in Is. 53:1-11, we see the pronouns of “we” and
“our” and “us”, which comes out of nowhere. And that is the gospel message that Zion and
Jerusalem in Is. 40:9 is called to announce. And then it ends with Yahweh announcing the
Servant’s victory in Is. 53:11b-12.
 Next we want to look at the word “many.” It is used four times in the fourth Servant Song. In Is.
52:14 many were appalled at him. Then Is. 52:15 “he will sprinkle many nations.” Then we go to
the end of the Servant Song. In Is. 53:11 it says the righteous Servant will “make many to
accounted righteous.” Then in v. 12, Yahweh “will divide him a portion with the many.”

When you look at Jesus, the word “many” is used four times. “The Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt. 20; Mk. 10) The word “many” is
used in the words of institution (Mt. 26; Mk. 14). “This is the blood of the covenant shed for
many.” Both of these take us back to the fourth Servant Song. “Many” also appears in Rom. 5
and Heb. 9.

So the big question is this: Does the usage of “many” comport with the Hellenistic use of many,
which as it says means many and not all? We use it in this way. Or is it used with the Semitic
understanding where in some cases many denotes the totality of all people? That is a big
difference.

If you are a Calvinist, you take many as many. For the Calvinists, the Suffering Servant didn’t
suffer and die for all people. He did it for many people. He did it for only the elect, not for all.
And the texts they use to prove their point are the texts we are looking at.

There are several places where the word “many” is parallel to the word “all” in the OT. For
instance, see Is. 2:2-3. It says that “all nations” will stream to God’s holy mountain. And then it
says in parallel form in v. 3 “many peoples shall come.” So here many people equals all nations.

Paul in Romans 5 makes this much clearer. Paul is a Jew and he thinks Semiticly. In Rom. 5:15 it
says “many died through one man’s trespass” and “… the grace of that one man Jesus Christ
abounded for many.” In Rom. 5:18 he continues the same idea. Here he says “one trespass led to
the condemnation for all men” and then “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life
for all men.” So in Hebrew and in Semitic thinking many and all can be used interchangeably.

Back in Isaiah, we have context for the use of many. Look at Is. 49:6. We know that the Servant is
 to be a light to the nations and his salvation will reach “to the end of the earth.” So the
substitute Servant came for all people. In Is. 45:22 Yahweh says, “Turn to me and be saved, all
the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” The offer of salvation is for all
people. So to say that the word many should be taken literalistically in the fourth Servant Song
undercuts the context and ignores the idea that in some cases many means all.

There are many texts in the NT that speak to the universal nature of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
The best one is in 2 Cor. 5. In 2 Cor. 5 and 6 we have Paul’s understanding of the Servant in Is. 40-
55. 2 Cor. 5:19 says, “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting
their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” It is
universally accepted that Paul is drawing Chistian truths out of the fourth Servant Song here.
John said, “For God so loved the world.” “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world.” In Heb. 2 it says Jesus tasted death for all people. Why are we hammering on this?
Because if Jesus did not die for all people there is no way we can be sure of our salvation. But
based on God’s word, we can be sure.

 In Is. 53:10 it says: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt, …” When Paul reflects on this he says: “For our sake he
made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God.” The righteousness Paul speaks of comes from Is. 53:11 where it says the righteous One will
“make many to be accounted as righteous.” So who is the many? All people – objective
justification that is received by faith.

Jacob Milgrom, a well-known Jewish expert on Leviticus, says that unintentional sin does not
require a confession of sin along with a guilt offering but intentional sin requires a confession of
sin. Do we ever deliberately sin? Yes, of course. So if that is the case, how will this guilt offering
of Is. 53:10 become efficacious? We have to confess our sins.

In Is. 53:6 it says the sin is intentional, each one turned to his own way. People refuse to go God’s
way. When we intentionally sin, that means we need to confess our sin for this guilt offering to
cover us. That is what we have in Is. 53 – a confession. The confessional component of the guilt
offering goes from Is. 53:1 through v. 11a. That confession is the confession of each of us, which
is built into the fourth Servant Song, so the Servant’s guilt offering covers each of our sins.
Because of this, we say in our liturgy 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Having confessed our sins, the
substitute Servant justifies us. The confession of the fourth Servant Song is in the first person
and it applies to each of us. All of us are in exile too. All of us have gone astray. All of us need the
sacrifice of the Suffering Servant to cover us.

 One way to understand the fourth Servant Song is to use the word “all.” Being high and lifted up,
the Servant had it all. He is Yahweh in the flesh. He gave it all up by pouring out his life to death
(Is. 53:12). And in justifying “many,” he gives it or delivers it all to us. Therefore all is demanded
of us. So using the word “all” is a beautiful way to summarize the fourth Servant Song.
How Is. 40-55 is Used in Luke/Acts
 Luke and Acts takes Is. 40-55 and applies it to Jesus in a number of ways. First we look at Luke
2:25. Simeon is waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Greek word translated as consolation is
the same word used in Is. 40:1 which is translated as comfort. Careful study shows us that Luke
is using all of these words and ideas that originate in Is. 40-55. Luke does this to help us
understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of Is. 40-55. So Simeon is awaiting the
comfort of Israel, which means he is waiting for Is. 40-55 to be fulfilled.

 Now look at Luke 2:38. Anna is at the temple when baby Jesus is brought there and speaks of
Jesus “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Throughout Is. 40-55, Yahweh
is Jerusalem’s redeemer. So she too is waiting for Is. 40-55 to be fulfilled.

 Next look at Luke 3:6. It says: “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Luke has quoted from
Is. 40:3-4 and then in v. 6 he quotes Is. 40:5.

 Next is Luke 9:31. This is the transfiguration and Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking to
Jesus about his departure/exodus. This is the only place in the NT where the word exodus
occurs. This means that Jesus has come to enact the Is. 40-55 exodus. He’s not getting people
out of Babylon. He’s getting people out of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus has come to enact an
exodus, a way out for people.

 In Luke 9:51 it says: “he set his face [resolutely] to go to Jerusalem.” Similarly in the third Servant
Song in Is. 50:7 the Servant says: “ I have set my face like a flint.” Jesus is determined to go to
Jerusalem. Why? What is going to happen there? All of the events that happen in the third
Servant Song. He is going to suffer and die.

 Now Luke 2:49. This is the story of Jesus when he was 12 years old going to Jerusalem for the
Passover. When it came time to leave, Jesus stayed behind and his parents had to come back to
look for him. When they found him at the temple and confronted him, he said, “Why were you
looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” The important word
here is “must.” He said he had to do it. Where does that come from? Is. 53:10 says: “it was the
will of the Lord to crush him.” In other words, it had to happen. This is called the Divine Must. It
was God’s plan. It was his will that his plan of salvation be carried out. And even at the age of 12
Jesus knew God’s plan very clearly. He knew that it had to happen. Why? Because it was foretold
in the scriptures, especially in Is. 40-55. In Rev. 13 it says something to the effect that the Lamb
of God was slain before the creation of this world. That means that God’s plan was set before the
world was even created. Peter says as much in his sermon in Acts 2:23.

The Divine Must appears 15 times in Luke and Acts. One instance is found in Luke 22:37. Jesus
says to his disciples, “Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the
transgressors.’” He is quoting from Is. 53:12.

Then we have Luke 24:6-7 where the angels remind the women on Easter morning of what Jesus
 said. He had told them, “that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And then in Luke 24:44 Jesus said, “These are my
words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law
of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

It is a consensus among scholars of Luke that the Divine Must has as its anchor the fourth
Servant Song, Is. 53:10. It was Yahweh’s plan and purpose to crush the Servant, so it had to
happen.

Since Luke wrote Acts, you can find the Divine Must there too. In Acts 9:16 we have the Lord
saying to Ananias about Saul: “ For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my
name.” What is true of the substitute Servant is true of Paul. Later Paul will say, I must go Rome.
Paul has a cross laid upon him.

Now look at Acts 14:22. This shows that the offspring of the Servant have a Divine Must because
the only way that we learn and grow up and become mature Christians is through suffering. V. 22
says: “22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and
saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” So the Divine Must
goes from the Servant (Jesus) to Paul to all of Jesus’ offspring.

 Luke 23:47 says: “ Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying,
“Certainly this man was innocent [or a righteous man]!” That connects back to Is. 53:11 where it
says, My righteous Servant will justify many.

 Take a look at Acts 1:8, the theme verse for the book of Acts: “But you will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” One of the themes from Is. 40-55 is the ends of the
earth. We have this in the second Servant Song, where the Servant will be “my salvation … to the
end of the earth (Is. 49:6.). And then there is Is. 45:22: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of
the earth! …” So the mission of the church to be witnesses to the ends of the earth is the
Servant’s mission from Isaiah.

 In Acts 3:13, what is Jesus called? “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in
the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. “ He is called God’s Servant. And in
Acts 3:26 Jesus is called “his servant” again. And in Acts 4:27 and 4:30 Jesus is called “your holy
servant, Jesus.” Luke makes it very clear who the Servant of God is. It is Jesus.

 The word Stephen uses to describe the Jews in Acts 7:51 is stiff-necked. Israel was first called
this at the golden calf incident in Ex. 32. When this term is used, it refers to idolators. In Acts 14
Paul confronts idolatry. And in Acts 17 Paul is in Athens confronting idolatry. And again in Acts 19
they encounter idolatry in the worship of the goddess Diana. Another connection to Isaiah is in
Acts 9:2 where Saul is seeking to persecute “the Way.” For Luke, the Way is the way out of
idolatry. This applies to all Jews and Gentiles who do not worship Jesus. The Christian faith is the
 Way out of idolatry, which is also the point of Is. 40-55.

 Now we look at Acts 8:32-35 where the Ethiopian eunuch was reading the fourth Servant Song
from Isaiah. The eunuch asks who the prophet Isaiah is talking about. And Phillip explains to him
that he was talking about Jesus.

 There is more to the connection of Luke-Acts with Is. 40-55 but this gives you a pretty good idea
of how Luke draws heavily from Is. 40-55. We’ve seen where Luke uses various themes from
Isaiah: the exodus, the consolation, redemption, all the ends of the earth, the Divine Must, the
idolatry. We find all of that in Luke-Acts. It is a consensus that Luke was thoroughly acquainted
with and enmeshed with Is. 40-55. And the Holy Spirit took his love for this OT text and inspired
Luke to write these two volumes that we call Luke and Acts.