Sketched XI Day 12 Wearied, Worn; Rested, Revived: Digging Deeper
July 4, 2023
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Isaiah 45:1-13
2 “I will go before you and level the uneven places; I will shatter the bronze doors and cut the iron bars in two. 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches from secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord. I am the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4 I call you by your name, for the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one. I give a name to you, though you do not know me. 5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me. I will strengthen you, though you do not know me, 6 so that all may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is no one but me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
8 “Heavens, sprinkle from above, and let the skies shower righteousness. Let the earth open up so that salvation will sprout and righteousness will spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it. 9 “Woe to the one who argues with his Maker— one clay pot among many. Does clay say to the one forming it, ‘What are you making?’ Or does your work say, ‘He has no hands’? 10 Woe to the one who says to his father, ‘What are you fathering?’ or to his mother, ‘What are you giving birth to?’”
11 This is what the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and its Maker, says: “Ask me what is to happen to my sons, and instruct me about the work of my hands. 12 I made the earth, and created humans on it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded everything in them. 13 I have stirred him up in righteousness, and will level all roads for him. He will rebuild my city, and set my exiles free, not for a price or a bribe,” says the Lord of Armies.
The Original Intent
1) Who was Cyrus and why is he called God’s anointed one? (verse 1)
We can read of the same Cyrus mentioned here in Isaiah’s prophecy in our history books. Perhaps you recall learning of Cyrus the Great, a Persian ruler dating from 539-530 BC, in your world history class. If recalling his exploits is a bit challenging, the important aspect for this passage centers around his decision to free the Jewish exiles from Babylon.
Just as prophesied, Israel would remain in exile seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11) as punishment for their continued rebellion against the Lord their God who had freed them from slavery in Egypt and birthed them into a nation to fulfill a covenant He had cut with Abraham. (Genesis 15)
Contrary to how it may have seemed during exile, God had not abandoned them. His love for them, and His righteous jealousy that called them to worship only Him, was still actively present, guarding and protecting them while He arranged history to set His people free to return Home to Jerusalem at exactly the right time.
Who would free them? Ironically, a foreign Gentile king who didn’t know or worship the Lord God (verse 5), namely Cyrus the Great. God’s sovereignty and complete authoritative rule and reign over all things, peoples, and time as poetically described in verses 6-7, would anoint Cyrus to free His people from captivity.
The scene is one more “impossible” in a long string of “impossible-for-man” scenarios where the Lord’s arm of strength would be made known despite all apparent odds for He alone is the God of all possibility (Luke 1:37); nothing escapes His dominion.
The Everyday Application
1) Who was Cyrus and why is he called God’s anointed one? (verse 1)
It’s easy to wake up each day with narrowed tunnel vision of our existence, forgetting we are only one strand of the magnificent tapestry the Sovereign One is weaving. Lovingly, He who cares about every sparrow that falls and every strand of hair we’ve ever worn on our heads, deeply and intricately knows every aspect of our lives. He provides both free will and exercises sovereign control over all things; nothing escapes His dominion.
Like He used an unsuspecting foreign ruler to bring freedom to His people, speaking these prophetic words through His appointed mouthpiece of Isaiah 150 years before it would come to pass, the Lord uses us, our circumstances, and people and events and even creation and inanimate objects to point to His authoritative rule and reign. (Psalm 19:1-4, Luke 19:37-40) Bible teacher, R. C. Sproul, taught that there are no maverick molecules in the universe because the Lord is supremely sovereign.
This reality insists we re-examine the lens through which we view our everyday lives, our struggles, and our joys. Truth about God presses us to hold every aspect of our lives up to the Light of the God who is supremely powerful and all-loving as He guides both our individual daily stories as well as those of the ones around us.
Your “impossible” situation is just one more opportunity to evidence the power of the Lord God who used an unbeliever to make His name known to the ancient world and our own. (verse 6) How might He use your “impossible” to point others to Him, or maybe, even just you? Keep waiting on the Lord, Sister; He will never cease to be both sovereign and loving! (Psalm 27:13-14)
The Original Intent
2) What key message is revealed in verse 8 about God’s purposes?
Verse 8 acts as an anchor for the passage, providing an open window to peer into the mission of God’s heart. Yes, He holds all sovereign rule and reign over all things, but He never acts from a place of cruelty or self-seeking lusts for He alone is the God of all Righteousness.
Like the cloud of God’s presence descended to Mt. Sinai in order to commune with His people (Exodus 19:9-11), like the fire that fell from Heaven at Elijah’s faith-filled prayer (1 Kings 18:20-45), so God provides another reminder of the only Source of pure righteousness: Himself. He comes from above and descends like gentle, life-giving rain upon the world.
The result of soaking in the “rain” of His righteousness is salvation and, because of it, our sprouts of righteousness reflect God’s original righteousness back to Him. This is the “rain cycle” God intended!
He knew we would never be able to “climb the mountain of God”, for only those who are blameless and perfectly pure, being without sin, are able to accomplish this, which eliminates all of us. (Psalm 24:3-4)
Humanity will always chase itself and its own lusts and fleshly desires, eagerly sacrificing to “gods” we believe we can control, just as the 400 prophets of Baal did on Mt. Carmel where Elijah led a standoff between the One True God and the false “deity”. But this “competition” is no competition at all, for who can stand against the Lord God, the Holy and Righteous One? (Nahum 1:1-8) He will put all other false idols, and their worshippers, to shame! (verse 16)
The Everyday Application
2) What key message is revealed in verse 8 about God’s purposes?
The physical soil of the earth doesn’t have the freedom to choose whether it receives or rejects nurturing rain. It is a grace gift from the Lord for this rain to fall, a grace that was withheld for three years because King Ahab had led Israel into idol worship.
Christ was the fullness of God’s righteousness coming down from above, descending to offer us salvation. He offers eternal rescue from the just penalty of eternal death we deserve because we are a people of unclean lips and hearts; we are filthy with our sin. (Isaiah 64:6) Whether we’ve told a single white lie or committed murder, every sin qualifies us for eternal death because we are not perfectly righteous. (Romans 3:23)
While we earn death, Christ paid our death penalty by surrendering His life that we might be “bought back” from death to life! (Romans 6:23) Unlike the dry dust of the earth that simply must receive the gift of falling waters, we are given the freedom to choose grace. We may either accept or reject Christ’s righteousness for ourselves. If we agree with the Lord that we are sinners worthy of death and come to Him ready to turn away from a life of sin, His Spirit is deposited in us as a promised seal that we are His forever; none will be able to snatch us away. (John 10:27-30)
This Spirit of God cultivates our hearts, shaping us to be like Christ as He prunes away sin and whets our appetite for the things of God. (Romans 8:29, John 15:2) As we respond to the love God has poured out into our hearts by His Spirit (Romans 5:5), we sprout righteousness that reflects God’s righteousness back to Him. Like fresh blades of spring grass signal newness of life, so do our acts of righteousness signal to the world of a God who graciously gives new life. (verse 23)
The Original Intent
3) What prophecies are revealed in verse 13?
Verse 13 is pregnant with prophecies of the coming Cyrus, but beyond Him, to the coming Christ, carrying even jewels of our purpose as a Church as we follow Christ. Though Cyrus the Great had no intention of honoring and worshiping Israel’s God or walking justly in His ways, the Lord “stirred him up in righteousness” . (verse 13)
The Lord’s heart motives were righteous as He sought to free His people from exile and bring them Home to Jerusalem. The Lord used His righteousness to stir up Cyrus to act righteously. (Proverbs 21:1) In the same way, His Righteous Holy Spirit stirs us up to follow Him and walk in His ways together with all believers in Jesus in whom the Spirit dwells. This same Spirit was the Righteous motivation that fueled the Father to send the Son as a perfect sacrifice to offer for the sins of the world. (1 John 2:2)
Keep in mind, this prophecy from Isaiah was spoken 150 years before Cyrus decreed Israel could return to Jerusalem and nearly 700 years before Christ would come to earth. Israel hadn’t even been captured yet, and her temple was still intact, but her heart was desperately far from the Lord. Isaiah’s prophetic words pleaded with the people to return to the Lord that His judgement wouldn’t fall on them.
Verse 13 says the Lord would level the path before Cyrus so he would accomplish the Lord’s will. Hundreds of years later, another prophet, John the Baptist, was sent to fulfill more of Isaiah’s words that spoke of one (John the Baptist) who would come to prepare the way of the Lord by making a “straight highway for our God in the desert.” (Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:3)
The Everyday Application
3) What prophecies are revealed in verse 13?
Before John the Baptist came on the scene, the Lord used Cyrus the Great to foreshadow what would come right before “the glory of the Lord [would] appear (That’s Jesus!), and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5) Through Isaiah, the Lord said of Cyrus, “He will rebuild my city and set My exiles free, not for a price or a bribe[…]”. (verse 13)
Cyrus would send supplies and treasures to rebuild the temple, even returning items that had been taken during Israel’s capture. (Ezra 1:2-7) Cyrus would send Israel Home and would freely do it without being bribed or forced; he would respond to the stirring up of the Lord’s righteousness and would choose to act righteously.
In the same stunningly beautiful way, Christ, the jewel of Heaven, would give Himself by freely laying down His life to build the True Jerusalem, the Church, made up of believers from every generation and every nation in the world. Christ would come to set His people free from sin and death, freeing them to go Home and dwell with Him forever! (John 10:17-18)
When the Church lives out God’s heart on earth to point people to Him by using our lives to reflect His righteousness, we have joined with God Himself as co-laborers in His kingdom to bring the Lost without Jesus Home to be with Him in His family! (1 Corinthians 3:9)
Respond to God’s call of righteousness on your life, embrace His grace gift and reflect His righteousness to the people around you that they might see Christ in you!
Can We Pray With You?
Prayer is central to our ministry as believers in Jesus as we carry eachother’s burdens and intercede for one another. Our team is honored to share the work of praying alongside you!
This Week's Lock Screen
Authentically living out a life of worship to the God who rescued us from darkness requires accountability and intentionality. Join a GT POD and take the next step in your faith journey!
