“Whom
Should You Fear?”
[Isaiah
51:9-16]
March
14, 2021 YouTube
In the opening verses of this chapter, we see that
righteousness is given by God through Jesus – the Servant Savior – to the
people of God, and since they are righteous, they have no reason to fear men
because the wicked will eternally be eaten as a cloth is eaten by moths and
worms.
In
this morning’s text, we are told the primary reason that all those who believe
in the Savior should not fear men. It is
divided into two sections.
First,
God is Omnipotent; remember His works.
“Awake,
awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations
of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?”
And
the twenty-first century Christians said, “What?”
God
is told to awaken – does He not recognize what is going to happen as Jerusalem
is taken into captivity? Where is the
God of Jerusalem?
God
is told to put on strength – to show that He is the all-powerful One – the
Almighty – to do something new for His people, just as He has done in the past
– in the days of old – in the generations of old.
Jerusalem
is remembering the things that God has done in the past for His people, and
they call on Him to do something now. They
call on Him to use to power of His arm – His Sovereign Power over all things.
And
that’s not wrong, is it? We are told to
call on God – to seek His Will – to pray.
James
writes, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this,
that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you
murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have,
because you do not ask” (James 4:1-2, ESV).
Jesus
tells His disciples to pray, and we are to pray. We are to ask for our daily bread – whatever
we need this day to be the people of God as God wills us to be.
And
then Jerusalem follows this up by asking the rhetorical question, “Aren’t You
the One Who cut Rahab into pieces and pierced the dragon?”
These
examples are in a code that Jerusalem would have understood:
The
sons of Korah write, “Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold,
Philistia and Tyre, with Cush—'This one was born there,’ they say” (Psalm 87:4,
ESV).
So,
Rahab refers to a place, not to the prostitute of the book of Joshua.
Isaiah
tells us who Rahab is back in chapter 30: “Egypt’s help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her ‘Rahab who sits still’” (Isaiah 30:7, ESV).
Rahab
is Egypt.
And
the dragon?
Ezekiel
prophesies, “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
prophesy against him and against all Egypt; speak, and say, Thus says the Lord
GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that
lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for
myself.’ I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick
to your scales; and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with
all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales. And I will cast you out
into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams; you shall fall on
the open field, and not be brought together or gathered. To the beasts of the earth and to the
birds of the heavens I give you as food’” (Ezekiel, 29:2-5, ESV).
This
code is used to show that the cosmology of Babylon is not the cosmology of
Genesis – to awaken Jerusalem to think about what God has done in her past. The Creation history of Babylon is a myth;
the Creation history of the Bible is true.
And the God of the Bible is the True and Almighty God. They need to know this with surety as they
prepare to be exiled in Babylon.
The
Babylonians believe that there are two equally powerfully gods that fight each
other over the chaos in the beginning of time.
Mummu wants to create order, but Tiamet wants to maintain the primordial
chaos.
The
point is that just as God is the Almighty Who defeated all the gods of Egypt –
who are not gods, but idols, so God is Almighty over Babylon and her so-called
gods.
Tiamet
is the so-called god of the primordial chaos – represented by the sea.
But
Jerusalem remembers:
“Was
it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the
depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?”
Remember
that God, the One God, the Almighty God delivered His people out of Egypt, and
when they faced the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit, God divided
the sea and the children of Israel waked across dry ground to the other shore –
and when the Egyptians made their way to the dry ground, God let the waters
return and drown the Egyptians.
God,
not Tiamet, is Sovereign over the waters and all of Creation.
If
we want assurance that God is Almighty – that there are no other gods who can
compete with Him or thwart His Will – look at the history of God recorded in
the Bible – see the Almighty God – Who is our God.
Don’t
fear being exiled in Babylon, or Covid, or President Biden or President Trump –
God is Sovereign over all of these – He is the Almighty. Everything He wills comes to pass. And God
has promised Jerusalem that the day will come when her exile will be finished,
and she will return.
“And
the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting
joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow
and sighing shall flee away.”
A
day will come – some seventy years after the exile begins – when God will
return Jerusalem by His Mighty Right Hand – just as He delivered them from
Egypt – and bring them back to Zion – to Jerusalem. And there will be singing and everlasting joy
– gladness and joy – all the effects of sin and evil will be banished from the
Kingdom of God and His people.
And
this is partially fulfilled in Jerusalem’s return. God leads them out of Babylon, returns them
to the land and there is singing and joy and gladness. But sin and evil are not banished – yet. Still, this is the promise of the Almighty
God – He will do it.
Surely,
we remember this promise as it is revealed to us in Revelation:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And
I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell
with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the
former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4, ESV).
God
is Omnipotent – Almighty over all His creation.
Look to God’s past works to see that this is true. Be assured that no matter what we go through,
God is the All-powerful God, and He is Sovereign over all that is happening.
Second,
God is Omnipotent; whom should you fear?
“I,
I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of
the son of man who is made like grass,”
God
speaks and stresses that He is – most assuredly, the God of Moses, the God Who
spoke to him in the burning bush – the “I AM” of Israel. And God says to remember that He is their
comforter – He is their advocate.
We
remember the word from Isaiah 40: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her
iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all
her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2, ESV).
And
Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor
knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John
14:15-17, ESV).
“Helper”
here is the same word as “comforter” in the Old Testament – so the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, is our Comforter – our Advocate.
So,
God – the Triune God – the Almighty God days, “If I am Your Comforter – your Advocate
– your Helper, why should you ever be afraid of a human?”
David
writes, “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of
the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it
no more” (Psalm 103:15-16, ESV).
Jesus
says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather
fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, ESV).
In
other words, the Only One we should fear is God. We ought to be in awe of God and obedient to
God. And the wicked ought to tremble in
fear.
If
God is the Omnipotent, Sovereign, Only God – and we are believers – we never
have any reason to fear any human – only God.
And
we might think, “Well, that’s easy to say, but what if you are being stalked,
or have a gun held to your head, or are terminally ill, or the government begins
an authoritarian crack down on her people?”
Jesus
says the worst anyone can do to us is kill us, and then we shall immediately be
with Him.
At
this point, there is a bracket in the text and Isaiah speaks:
“and
have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the
foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the
wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath
of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not
die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.”
Isaiah
tells Jerusalem – as they fear being taken into captivity – and some will be
killed and some will die – “have you forgotten that our God is the
All-powerful, Sovereign God is the One Who made us? Have you forgotten that He is the One Who
stretched the heavens across the sky and laid the foundation of the earth in
the Creation?”
We
were created to glorify God, whatever that means for us. As Paul writes, “For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).
Are
we in fear all day long because of this or that? Are we afraid that something of someone might
kill us? Are we afraid of the spiritual
forces that are seeking to destroy us?
James
tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you” (James 4:7, ESV).
The
Almighty God has promised release those who bow before Him – who come to Him in
humility, believing and repenting of sin.
All who believe savingly in Jesus will never descend into Hell, and all
who believe savingly in Jesus will have their daily needs met. The God Whose will cannot be thwarted
promises this, and He cannot lie.
God
continues, “I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves
roar—the LORD of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in your mouth and
covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the
foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
The
sea is not just symbolic of chaos and evil and death for the Babylonians, it is
similarly symbolic in the Bible – so we have John tell us in the book of Revelation
that the “sea is no more” – referring to the end of chaos, death, and evil, not
the end of the physical sea.
So,
God again says that He is All-powerful and Sovereign over the sea and its
roaring waves – not Tiamet. God does not
sin or do evil, but sin and evil are under His control and are part of the plan
that best accomplishes the glorifying of God.
This
same God has given us His Word and put it in our mouths – the Word delivered by
the mouths of the prophets. He protects
us from the evil that tries to do to us what God has forbidden. He is the God Who is establishing the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth for His Kingdom. He is the One Who chose Jerusalem to be His
people – all those who believe savingly in the Servant Savior.
Paul
writes of our confidence against those we could fear:
“What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He
who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also
with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s
elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who
died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed
is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger,
or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day
long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39, ESV).
All those who believe savingly in the Servant Savior in Jerusalem
are eternally the people of God, and all those who believe savingly in Jesus
throughout time and space are eternally the people of God.
So, God is Omnipotent, and Jerusalem has nothing to fear
in going into exile, and we have nothing to fear from what men may do to us.
Let us remember that God is Omnipotent and remember all
that He has done throughout history, and let us not fear humans, but God Alone.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we are a frail and forgetful people. Bring to mind what You have done and all we
have been told about You in Your Word.
Cause the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, to grow in faith and obedience,
and not to fear what man can do. And may
the works You have ordained for us be a glory to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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