We have been working our way through the Book of Ruth on Sunday mornings, and we're going to take a one-Sunday intermission. And I suspect that from the song selection that Mrs. Baer made a last-minute series of adjustments to the singing to reflect the text. When I first moved to Omaha, when we first moved to Omaha, and we would go back to visit family, You know, people would ask how you like Omaha and what's it like in Omaha and what's the weather like in Omaha? And I very quickly began to answer that question with the word extreme. Extremely hot, extremely cold, extremely windy. When it rains, the sky turns green. When it snows, it's not uncommon for it to be a blizzard. The weather can be extreme. And extreme is kind of the subject matter in front of us this morning. Let me ask you if you would to stand please. We're going to begin by reading just one verse, but we're going to look at most of Isaiah 42 and 43 this morning in the message. But Isaiah 43, 15 is the verse we will read to begin. I am the Lord. your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, the Creator of Israel, your King. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you again for Jesus, our great Savior. We thank you, God, for your mighty power, for your unsearchable wisdom, And Father, I ask for us today that our faith would be in you and in your word, that we would not be quickly, suddenly shaken in our faith by the events in the world around us. Give to us your insight and your wisdom this day, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. And you may be seated, thank you. Well, once again, in the last couple of weeks, our attention has been turned to the age-old hostility between Israel and her Palestinian neighbors, particularly those who are the descendants of Ishmael. The conflict between Jacob and Ishmael still lingers. And it is fought with a particular brutality. Children, women, the elderly, none are exempted from the violent brutality. And there are, of course, supporters on both sides. There are pro-Palestinian rallies being held in America. There are pro-Israel rallies being held in America. The violence has extended outside of where it began, the Western Bank, Hamas, and I am no expert in the field, but Hamas is the Palestinian political organization that governs the West Bank, which is realistically, essentially, a prison for Palestinians who are under the control of the Israelites, who wield ultimate control of the West Bank region and permit Palestinian control through Hamas, now Hezbollah, which is a, I believe, Syrian rebel group, pro-Palestinian group on the east side of the nation has become involved. As always, there's much blame to be thrown around. There's much concern to be expressed. And as I have conversed with some of you and have read the headlines, I have wondered what does a pastor say and does he say anything at all? And certainly the pastor, while he, like everybody else, lives observing the political and economic and military components of the war, our perspective on the conflict, folks, cannot simply be through the lens of the civilian or the military or the economics or even the brutality. Our understanding of the conflict must be tethered to a spiritual dimension, what is going on there and what is its true significance. And I hope to lend some perspective to that this morning by turning our attention to the book of Isaiah, where we have read. Isaiah is written approximately 150 years before, prior, to the most devastating event in Israeli history, the Babylonian captivity, in which the country is destroyed economically, politically, civilly, even religiously. God allowing the temple to be destroyed, the sacred vessels to be hauled away. most of which have never and probably never will be recovered, the gold being melted down for other purposes. Isaiah is dealing with that, he is looking towards that, he is predicting that, he is warning about that. But it has yet to happen. He would be like a man standing on the day of the Declaration of Independence predicting the arrival of a civil war. Structurally, you're familiar that the book of Isaiah, one of the longer books in the Old Testament, it's 66 chapters, falls quite easily into two main segments, verses, or chapters one through 39, I would call the deconstruction of the nation of Israel, and chapter 40 through chapter 66, the reconstruction. of the nation of Israel. Again, even in the division of the book, there are previews of the extremes to which God will go. It is the reconstruction portion that is our, that has our attention this morning and only a part of that. And it is in the reconstruction portion in verses chapters 40 through 66, that we find these occasional references to God's servant. Probably the most familiar of them is going to be, of course, Isaiah 53, the passage describing Christ as God's servant. Sometimes in the servant passages, Jesus Christ is being addressed, and that's really what's going on in chapter 42, beginning in verse number one, down through verse number 17. We're not going to read that this morning, but Jesus Christ is the recipient of that passage of scripture. He is the main person of that. But sometimes when God talks about his servant, he is talking about the nation of Israel. And it is in chapter 42, beginning in verse number 18, that the servant changes from Jesus Christ the Messiah to the nation of Israel. And it is there that I want to begin this morning. And as we begin in chapter 42, 18, and work our way through chapter 43, we are going to notice two cycles. There is first a cycle of rebuke, followed by a cycle of reassurance, followed by a cycle of rebuke, followed by a cycle of reassurance, And then we will add two more parts to that to close out the message this morning. Let's read together then chapter 42 verses 18 through 25. Here ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see. Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not. Opening the ears, but he heareth not. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake. He will magnify the law and make it honorable. But this is a people robbed and spoiled. They are all of them snared in holes. They are hid in prison houses, they are for a prey and none delivereth, for a spoil and none saith restore. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord, He against whom we have sinned, For they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured out upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about. Yet he knew not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. So in 42, 18 through 25, you have a rebuke of the nation of Judah. And obviously the context does not allow it to be Jesus, for Jesus is neither deaf nor blind. When God speaks, Jesus hears. When God commands, Jesus obeys. Jesus says to the disciples, I always do the things that please my Father. And yet in this passage, the servant is deaf and blind. In fact, the question almost comes across like this. Who is blinder than Israel? Who is deafer than Israel? Nobody is as blind as they are. Nobody is as deaf as they are. You see a lot of things. You see a lot of things, but you don't understand any of them. The Lord, he loves the law. He delights in the righteousness of the law. That's not the problem. But look at yourselves. You are robbed. You are plundered. You are in hiding. Now we would have to go back, folks, and I'm just gonna pause there. All those things are in the text. You can read it as you read along. I'm not gonna point them out verse by verse. We would have to go back to the early chapters of Isaiah, to chapter six and seven, to that phase which is describing the deconstruction of Israel, to understand the picture. The great Babylonian captivity, when the walls come down and the temple comes down and the people are carried away captive, that's still a way out in the future. But Israel is in great peril. Actually, the nation of Judah. After Solomon's death, there was an almost civil war. The nation became two nations, Israel and Judah. Two capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem. And Samaria has already been conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians. And the mighty Assyrians are spreading their wings and gaining in power. I'm sorry, the Assyrians are on the way to destroy Samaria. They have not yet conquered them. Samaria is bracing for this and have made an alliance with the Syrians. Two smaller nations trying to coalesce and build one big military that can withstand the Assyrian onslaught, and they want Judah to join their alliance. And under men like Isaiah, the position of Judah has been no. But under the king, it has been, well, maybe. And so the people are in great peril. God says to them that soon enough they will be up to their neck in trouble. Now everybody can see that, right? I'm going back to Isaiah 6 and 7. Everybody can open the daily Jerusalem Times and read how close the Assyrians are. And everybody can open the Jerusalem Times and they can read about the Strategic planning that is being done by the kings of Syria, Samaria, trying to get the king of Judah to join in to form a confederation, three armies against one, maybe we can stop this. Everybody can read those headlines, but nobody can make true sense of them. What's really going on here? What's really at issue? Nobody comprehends. That is, by the way, part of the reason why God will say in Isaiah chapter 7 to the king, ask me for a sign, any sign. Ask me to do something to prove that I know what's going on around here. Oh no, I would never dare to do that. Well then I will give you a sign. I will give you a sign, you unbeliever. You see, everybody can see, just like now, folks, and I'm not suggesting I'm the only guy that sees, I'm just saying, everybody sees what's going on in the world. Everybody talks about what's going on in the world. Everybody laments what's going on in the world. Everybody has chosen a side. The Palestinians have to win. Israel has to win. America has to get involved. But not very many people see what's truly driving this, what's really at stake. Back to chapter 42. God asked the question in verse number 23, who will give ear? Who will listen? Nobody is as blind as Israel. Nobody is as deaf as Israel. Will anybody hear? Verse number 24, well, who did this? Why is Jacob the spoil? Why is Israel the plunder? Who did this? Jehovah did this. Did not the Lord against whom ye have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire. Yet he knew not. and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. To think, folks, that all that's going on is political or economic or territorial, even to think, folks, that it's a longstanding religious war, which it is, that isn't going away, which it's not, is to misread what's happening. There's the rebuke. It's a recitation of history. That brings us then, secondly, to the reassurance. And let's turn our attention then to chapter 43, beginning in verse number one. And actually, let me read verse number 25 of chapter 42 again to try and get the full weight of the way God talks. Therefore he hath poured out upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart, but now, but now. Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob. I am not done yet speaking. I am not done yet acting. I am not done yet intervening, but now, Saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I've called thee by name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee, Since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even every one that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified. Or let them hear and say, it is the truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange God among you. Therefore, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall let it? Hindered is the idea. Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, for your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cries in the ships. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power, they shall lie down together. They shall not rise, they are extinct, they are quenched as toe. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness. and rivers in the desert, and give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise." So the rebuke of the nation of Israel in 42.18 through 24 is followed up by the reassurance of the nation of Judah in 43.1 through 21. The Lord who lit you on fire wants you to know this. He is the same one that created you and gave you your form. He didn't just invent the nation of Israel. He gave it Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel. He gave it its kings and its government and its religion. He didn't just create it, he formed it, he fashioned it, he put it together, he made it what it is and what it was. So although I have lit you on fire, you need not fear, you belong to me. You will pass through the deep waters, but you will not perish. You will cross rivers, but they will not overflow you. You will pass through fire, but you will not be burned because I am your God. I am your savior. I gave Egypt for you a way that perhaps we don't necessarily think about crossing the Red Sea and the destruction of Israel as a sacrifice, as a ransom paid for the nation of Israel. I gave Egypt for you, I will give others for you. You do not need to be afraid, I will bring you back. And I would just point out, folks, without trying to drag us down some rabbit hole from which we would never return, that while we are glad for the regathering of Israel in 1948, for the end of World War II, when England relinquished its control of the land of Palestine, The United Nations created Israel as a modern independent political state. It is not the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, not yet. It might be the beginning, but it is far from the fulfillment. About half of the world's known Jews live in the United States of America. The biblical mandate is that all the Jews will be back in the land. It is not the fulfillment. In verses nine through 12, God points out what has been his recurring purpose for the nation of Israel. You are my witnesses. You are my witnesses. You are to bear testimony of me. You are to be the ones who let everybody else in the world know what it is like to have me as a God. I want you to know I am the only God. When I delivered you, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt, when I formed you as a nation, there was no strange God. There were no images or representations or idols or statues or associates. Just me. Just Jehovah. I was the only God. I delivered you. You were safe. And you will honor me, verses 13 through 21. I have brought Babylon for your sake. Babylon is coming for you. and it is for your good. So there's the rebuke, there's the reassurance, and in 43 verses 22 through 24 there is another rebuke. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the earth. Breathe forth into singing mounds, forests, every tree therein, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretches forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. I'm reading this and I am having a mild panic attack. Going, Was I present when I prepared this message, or? Let's go back to chapter 43. Can I do that? And I'll start there, reading where you were reading, wondering if your pastor had lost his mind. Verse number 22 of Isaiah 43, I will read. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I've not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices. Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. The rebuke, the reassurance, cycle number two, the rebuke. What have they done? Here are people that God has set on fire. Here's a people who are in hiding. Here's a people under judgment. Here's a people for whom the Babylonians are coming. What have they done? What is the grievousness of their sin that they warrant this? Well, that's a very complex answer, but part of the answer is given, folks, and we would dismiss it at our own peril, is verses 22 through 24. What is the great sin? They have found God boring. They have found God boring. They're tired of Him. They're tired of Him. They're tired of the sacrifices and the altars and the services and the offerings. They're tired of Him, just tired. He's just another burden to be borne. The emphasis, folks, upon verses 22 through 24, and I've tried to convey it in the way I've read it, is God Himself As you read, and you can find it even reading through the book of Isaiah, for instance, Isaiah chapter 58. They continue to participate in their religious services. They never fully abandoned these things. They never just closed the doors of the temple. They never turned off the fire in the altar. They never stopped with any of that. They just became very mechanical and very disinterested. Let's get it over with, let's do it. In Amos chapter five and verse number 21, God says to them, I hate, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Can you imagine folks, In the mail this week came a letter from heaven and instructions for it to be publicly read at Westwood Heights Baptist Church, and it went like this, this is Jehovah your God. I just want you to know I hate your church services. I hate them. When you sing, I plug my ears. When you put your money in the offering plate, I roll up my nose. I just despise it. I hate everything about it. And we go, but God, we're here. Every Sunday, we don't miss. And our tithes are put in regularly, and we open our hymnals and sing, and God goes, yeah, but not for me. You're not doing it for me. It doesn't have anything to do with me, it's just you, you do it for you. You do it because you have to, or because you're expected to, or because you don't know what else you'd do if you didn't do it, but you don't do it for me. That's the weight of the passage, folks. to which God says, I am not wearing you out with my worship requirements, but you are wearing me out with your sinfulness. I'm not wearied you, but you have wearied me. I am tired of your sin. This, by the way, is the same sentiment that will be echoed many years after, 150 years until the captivity, 70 years of captivity, 220 years sometime after that Malachi will write, God's same words, you find me tiresome. You just find me tiresome. That brings us to the fourth cycle. A rebuke, a reassurance, a rebuke, and a reassurance. Verse number 25. I, even I. He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins. I made mention in Sunday school we looked at briefly Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, two Old Testament passages outlining the new covenant. Here is another reference to something that is a new covenant assurance that God will forget the sins of Israel. I want you to make note of this. I started this sermon by talking to you about Nebraska's extreme weather. And here is an extreme of Isaiah 43, 25. Blotted. So there are the four cycles, a rebuke, a reassurance, a rebuke, a reassurance. The chapter closes with a request. In the book of Job, Job made a similar request. He asked for a court appearance with God. Here the role's reversed. God asks for a court appearance with Israel. Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. As in when the judge says, how do you plead? Let us plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest be justified. Prove your point. Prove your point that serving me is wearisome. Prove your point that worshiping me is odious. I'm your redeemer. I'm your savior. I'm your creator. I made you. Make your case, prove your case. Declare thou that thou mayest be justified, thy first father, Now, I just want to mention this. There is a billion pages of debate about who the first father is. We're not going down that hole. Let's just leave it at this, can we? From the beginning. From the beginning. From the beginning, this is the way you have felt about me. This is the way I have been treated from the beginning. Thy first father has sinned, thy teachers have transgressed against me, therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches, there is the second extreme. Extreme number one, verse number 25, I have blotted out your sins. Extreme number two, verse 28, I've given Israel to the curse. The force of that word, folks, is a little bit lost on us in the way that it is written there. In Genesis 6-7, the word is translated this way, when God looks at the sins of man and resolves to destroy mankind. I will destroy it. In Exodus chapter 17 and verse number 14, the word is used when God says that he will utterly put out the memory of Amalek. It is a word of destruction. Literally, it is the word, the ban. The ban. The idea is that it is something that is dedicated to destruction. Joshua 2.10, we've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when he came out of Egypt. What you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon, and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed, you devoted to destruction. So here is something worthy of our contemplation. In his reassurances, God has said to these people that he will completely blot out their sins. And then he will completely blot out these people. And let me ask you to turn to one last passage. And that is in the New Testament, 1 Peter 2. Two cycles of rebuke and reassurance. A request. Make your case, bring your case, make yourself innocent. And then there is, folks, the relevance of this passage. Who cares? It's Israel, it's Old Testament. Who cares? Let me very quickly read 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse number seven, down to verse number 11. Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. in a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but have obtained mercy. And I will stop there. The relevance of this passage, folks, is that we continue on as the people of God for his purpose. While you're looking at verse number nine of 1 Peter chapter two, let me just read to you Isaiah 43, 21. This people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. You see it in 1 Peter 2.9, they shall show forth my praise. We are not Israel. That is a whole theological discussion to have at another time. We are the church, but we are the people of God and we exist for the same purpose. Now let's take the two extremes and I'm gonna try and make some sense of them hopefully, in the next few minutes. Here's the word of the Lord to Israel. Complete salvation, 4325. Complete destruction, 4328. One of the things you have to remember, folks, is that this is a passage as beautiful and precious as the promises are when you pass through the waters, they shall not overflow you. This is a conversation that God is having with an entire nation. And the nation of Israel is constituted of two kinds of people, saved and lost. Most Jewish people were not believing people. And God could say to them, utter destruction. But as a nation, as a covenant people, God could equally say to them, for you. Complete salvation. So let me suggest to you first that there is an application of these truths to God's community, to the church. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 16 about the church? Thou art Cephas and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The church is going to continue, folks, in spite of death. That's what he's arguing there. These are words that Jesus spoke to 12 men, most of whom were going to die because of their service to the church. What is the death of Peter going to mean to the existence of the church? Nothing. The church will continue. What is our own individual death going to mean to the church? Nothing. The church will continue. God has guaranteed the church in perpetuity until the end of the age, folks. It's not going, you know, look, and there are numbers of us that have these kinds of conversations that if the present political leanings of our country continue and gain ascendancy, we will be at best imprisoned and at worst put into the gas chambers. Is that the end of the church? Nope. Because the church has an Isaiah 43, 25 kind of promise. as a community of people. But on the other hand, folks, the church is going to have enemies as long as it's a church, because God has an enemy. And that's not going away either. We will always be in a battle. We will always be in a fight. We will always be hated. That is going nowhere either. There's no paradise, there is no place, there is no kingdom until the King comes. Individually, and I'm assuming that you have your Bible still open to 1 Peter chapter 2, individually, right, reaching out the application a little bit farther, a little bit more wobbly, Folks, you have to remember that this is not simply a religious war that is going on between Israel and Hamas. These two bodies of people, and the brutality is real, and the blood is real, and the tears are real, and the grief is real. I'm not suggesting that they're not. But these are indicative of the foundational conflict between God and Satan. between flesh and spirit, between good and evil that is going on in the world. We stopped in verse number 11 of 1 Peter chapter two, verse nine. You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What a beautiful Isaiah 43, 25 promise, complete salvation. Verse number 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Which war against the soul. You are called to battle sinful desires. You are called to kill sin in your life. You are to mortify it, so am I. What is the compromise with sin that is acceptable? How much sin may you have in your life and it'd be okay to God? How much? Is not sin condemned to the ban, to utter destruction? Are we not called to eliminate sin completely? Do we not expect complete and total righteousness? Just as the world wants God removed from its memory, Romans 1, God wants sinfulness removed from his, Amalek. We are saved, folks, so that we may put on display the praises and the glory of God, and sin is an encroachment upon that. So there will be always battle, and it will always be ugly. Not that we are to get our guns and go around shooting at unbelievers, but the war that rages in our members is a no-holds-barred, no-peaceful negotiations. This is, folks, one of the great failings of the church always, is the belief that it can accommodate evil in some way, make terms with it and peace with it. There is no peace, cannot be. Let us pray.