The title for our study tonight is, God's Blessing Implored, Israel Restored. And we'll just pick out a few important facts that set that in the framework of this message from the prophet. Chapter 62 of Isaiah. There are 12 verses. Amen. We're going to be just picking up on that final verse and verse 4. And if you look at the last part of verse 4, you'll see why we sang the hymn about Beulah. And we'll come to that shortly. But before we do, if you'd like to come with me to the first chapter of the book of Habakkuk, a little book of Habakkuk, and the first chapter. Without deviating over into this book, I'm sure we're familiar with the background and the context and therefore the application of it. It draws us into what appears to be a concerned controversy in the mind of the prophet who has an enviable message to declare to the people. One that he cannot fully comprehend or understand himself in that it appears to be so infinitely complicated that he will find it difficult to convey that to the people of his time. You'll see it begins with the statement in verse 1, the burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. So it's not just something he feels, but he is actually been so made aware of what is happening as he sees the changing scene that is around him, which in essence, when we read down through these few chapters, we see it's a buildup of military strength on the borders of Israel. And the force that is gathering is Babylon. And so we're about to see an engagement that will devastate Israel. And the prophet has been made aware of this. He is reading the signs of the times. Now, we know as the people of God what that means. There are many politicians in countries right across the world who are reading in their mind and opinion the signs of the times. And they are planning and scheming and organizing in order to be ahead of the rest because they see changing trends in society and in the world around us. And you see that shifting of power, that shifting of policy, that engaging one with another. But for the believer, we have a different discernment. We see what is happening in the world around us from the biblical perspective. We don't learn how to gauge what's happening through any political aspiration or even qualification, but rather it is a belief in the Word of God, a simple faith that grasps hold of the message and the truth that God is bringing to us, that gives us a picture and an understanding that is not discovered by the Word, that is missed by many. So when we read our Bible, Everyone else reads the newspaper. Many believe what they're told when they read the political columns. We believe what we're told when we read the Bible. And that is what makes the difference. We are in the world, but we're not off the world. We know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. So there's a whole new dimension. to the living and the understanding of life that comes across in the realm of the spiritual. Now here is Habakkuk and Habakkuk is reading the signs. He can see what is developing on the borders and he knows that unless something happens there is going to be devastation. So what does he do? Well, he does what every good prophet does. He prays. But look what happens in verse 2. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and You will not hear? See, here he's confronted with the problem of unanswered. What do we do when we pray and we are convinced in our mind that we're praying according to the will of God? I mean, what would be more obvious to a prophet than to firmly believe that the answer to Israel's need would be for God to step in and prevent the Babylonians from coming in and invading their country and devastating their whole world? That would appear to be the obvious prayer to pray. Lord, stop this evil from encroaching upon the lives of your people. But as he prays, God doesn't answer. So, he then takes it a little bit further in verse 3. Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? Now, why are you giving me this spiritual discernment to see beyond the physical, even though that is devastating enough, but to see the actual spiritual impact of what the enemy can do? Why do you Allow me to understand this and to feel this burden for what's about to happen and yet you do nothing to resolve the problem and to ease the pain. And then he comes down. Look at verse 2. even cry out to you, violence, and you will not save." So he's drawing now upon this picture that God is sitting, observing all that's happening. He knows the pain and the anguish of the prophet and his people, but he is simply folding his arms and he is reluctant to get involved. But then we read a little insight, a little further down. Look at verse 5. Here is how God responds to these challenges or accusations of the prophet. Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded, for I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. And then we have a little insight into what God is saying here to the prophet. Look at verse 6. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. So God is now saying to the prophet, here is what I am doing. The army that is beginning to encroach upon your territory and threaten your safety is there to do what they are doing because I have raised them up. Is it any wonder that God has said to the prophet I will work a work, verse 5, in your days which you would not believe the word were told you. You see, God's ways are way above ours. His thoughts greater than ours. And even if God were to come alongside and explain to us why He is doing what He is doing, we would not be able to grasp the truth of what God is saying to us. That's why prayer is bathed in faith. That's why we pray believing. We're not believing because of the facts, because of what we see or what we feel or believe to be creating our environment, but we are praying with a firm conviction that God knows all about every situation and He has either sent it or allowed it or He will prevent it from happening. He is a God who is in control. So now we go back over to Isaiah chapter 62. And as we begin to move into this chapter, we are confronted by this statement in verse 1. For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest. Why is it important for Israel to know this at this particular time? Well, let's flick back through the book of Isaiah. Just three references. The first one in chapter 42 and the first part of verse 14. Isaiah 42. Just look at the first two lines of verse 14. I have held my peace a long time. I have been still and restrained myself. Remember when we were going through 1 Kings and we were looking at how Elijah was called, commissioned, and then confirmed as the prophet of God to represent the Word of God in Israel at a time when they had forsaken the Word, rejected the Word, despised the Word. Elijah the prophet becomes, as it were, God's word to the king and to the nation. And remember how we noted he approached the king and confirmed that God had declared, and now speaks according to the word of the prophet, that there will be no rain in the land for the space of three years. The prophet Elijah withdraws, symbolizing or signifying that the Word of God has been withdrawn from the land and from the people. God is not heard, God is not seen, there is no activity from God for a space of three years. The land is barren, being consumed by the folly of pagan worship and as a result the fruit of their disobedience to God, which is drought and famine and all of that. Here is the prophet Isaiah confirming that there has been this process where God has refused to speak or to act. But there has been a reason for that. and soon that will change. Now if you wanted to take this a little bit deeper and further we could go over with Israel into their Babylonian exile for 70 years and just witness their attitude and their concerns as they are compelled to make the contrast between how they were blessed in their own homeland and how they are now devastated in this land of their captivity. You recall in reading through some of the Psalms that They were encouraged to sing some of the songs of Zion. Lift your spirits. Think about God's blessing in the homeland. But their response was, how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They had taken as it were, and hung their harps on the willow trees. They didn't feel like or want to use them because they were in a strange land. What was strange about the land? They felt desolate because they felt deserted by God. But here the prophet is reminding them that there is a process and God is at work and part of that process is an apparent silence. from God. Now, we'll go over to chapter 57. Chapter 57. And we'll read verse 11. Peter, I think it's your turn. Chapter 57, verse 11. So here is another angle. The prophet is suggesting that because God has not been active in the sense that they had known him to be, in the sense that he has not been responding to their prayers, has that led them to their disobedience or at least the deepening of that resentment against God and their delving further into sin. God has deliberately left them, as it were, to be reminded by their own folly. Now, just come over past the 62nd chapter and into chapter 64. And look at verse 12. Now, this now becomes the prayer of the people. Round to you, Karen. Verse 12 of chapter 64. So there's that thought again, will you hold your peace and afflict us very severely? And if you look at the at the middle of the chapter, particularly look at verse 7 and the last part. You have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquity. So there's that feeling of desertion. They have been forgotten by God and with that sense of being forgotten, there can come a sense of being forsaken. So, that is now the critical condition, if you like, that the prophet is referring to in this 62nd chapter. And in verse 1, we are told two things. I will not hold my peace and I will not rest. So what God is declaring now is that the time has come when he will do the two things that he has withheld. He is about to speak and to act. So we sense that there is a change coming over the people and particularly the prophet. And that's why when we start to go into the sort of the road towards the finish line in these final chapters, We see the momentum picking up in chapter 63. Who is this who comes from Edom? Here is the feature of the judgment of God. Into chapter 64, here is the prayer for the intervention of God. Oh that you would rend the heavens that you would come down. are a people who are beginning to recognize that their only hope is in God. But then in chapter 65, God is saying, I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. Many a person comes to a saving knowledge of Christ who did not begin the journey searching for Him. They were looking for the answer to an empty heart. And they tried to fill their heart, to accomplish that desire by other means. But in the process, God has led them to the point of realization that the only one who can fill the heart is the One who made us, the Creator and the Redeemer. So that then becomes the focus of chapter 65. And then we come in to look at verse 17 of chapter 65. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. God is now telling the people that He will not only bring them into favor but he will restore the years the locusts have eaten so that now their latter end will be even greater than their former. So the prophet is now taking us into this build up if you like of thought relating to the work of God among them. So, when we break down the chapter, there are these two main themes. God will speak and God will act, as set out in verse 1. If you look at verse 2 and cast your eye through to verse 7, you will note the manner in which God will speak. God will speak directly, and we'll expand upon that a little later. And then coming into verse 8 through to verse 12, we see how God acts. So, God will speak directly, verses 2 to 7, and God will act decisively in verse 8 through to verse 12. And in the tense that is used, the thought is not only that God will speak, but that He will keep on speaking. Not only will He act but he will keep on acting. That's the thrust of the text. So God will fulfill his promise but his promise will not be fulfilled in one word or in one action. It will be an ongoing and as it turns out It will be a protection and it will be a deliverance, it will be a guidance, it will be everything that the nation now needs in order for it to fulfill what is God's purpose for her as a nation. Now when we look at verses 1 through to 3, we see that the prophet is dealing here with the coming glory or if you like the restoration of the nation. Verses 1 to 3. And the whole theme or the whole power or the authority of this thought deals with a sovereign determination. And that word determination comes in two senses. One, it is a record of what God has already determined. Another New Testament word, of course, is predestined. What God has already planned, and that plan He has set in motion. So the sovereign determination refers to what God has already promised or what He has planned. And the second thought in the word determination is that what God has planned, He will perform. He will not give up on it. He will not alter it. He will not change it. As He has declared, so He will fulfill. And so this now becomes the assurance of the people of God. So, look at verse 1. For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until Her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. So there is the initiation and there is the process and there is the outcome. God is saying I have promised and what I promised I will perform and no one or no thing will be able to change that. Now just come back into chapter 42. Isaiah 42. And look at verse 4. Now just hold that verse and have a little look at verse 1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. We've already noted that this is a reference and an anticipation of the coming Messiah. And here in verse four, we are told what he will accomplish. The last part of verse 1, he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. Verse 4, he will not fail nor be discouraged. till he has established justice in the earth. So here again is the purpose of God. Having been given, now the promise is that He will fulfill what He's promised. And nothing will change or alter that. Look at verse 14. Same chapter, 42. We've read the first part of this, let's read the entire verse. Again the thought is that whatever it takes God will bring forth, he will give birth as it were to his promise. It will be fulfilled right to the letter. Chapter 57 verse 11. Just glance down at verse 15 and run your eye down through those few verses. Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones, for I will not contend forever nor will I always be angry, for the Spirit would fail before me and the souls which I have made." And right through to the end of the chapter, we have this theme continuing that God will take action when the time is right. So we come back over And we pick up chapter 61 verse 11 on our way through. And then into the first verse of chapter 62. So see the thought. Verse 11 of chapter 61. The imagery there is of a garden. you sow, and then there comes a time of reaping. So in verse 11, we're told, as the earth brings forth its bud, the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth. So the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. So that is the process. God has planted, and now he waits for the harvest. So in verse one of chapter 62, here is the harvest. Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. So what is the purpose of having this growth, having this experience? Verse 2, the Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory. So, what the prophet is saying to the nation of Israel is that God is going to bring about a time when all the nations of the world will recognize that my purpose is being fulfilled. There has been the period of the seed lying in the soil, but now the time has come for a springing forth and for a revelation that the Gentiles will have to acknowledge is an awakening of God. And there it is set out, her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. Now we could, and maybe we should, rather than trying to finish all of this tonight. We'll come back to it, God willing, next week. But let's just go over into Ephesians chapter 5 and read verse 8. See, that is the New Testament understanding or translation of this first verse of Isaiah 62. Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns, the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. So here is the New Testament understanding of that Ephesians 5 verse 8. For you were once darkness. You were once, as it were, buried in the ground. Remember how Paul delivers that thought in chapter 2 and in verse 1. You he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. You were once, as it were, buried in the earth. You were dead. But God quickened you. He brought you forth. And in what way? Ephesians 5.8. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So you've been raised up as it were. God has established His purpose in your heart, in your life. What now must be your response? Here it is. walk as children of light. In other words, you now need to show forth the fruit of a resurrected life which is the fruit of righteousness, and Ephesians 5 and verse 9 carries that theme a little bit further. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. That is the fruit of our lives having been delivered from the darkness of our sin and brought into the light and the liberty of the grace of God in salvation. So God is now saying to Israel through the prophet Isaiah, this is your calling, this is the purpose, that when God delivers you from this bondage and establishes you and restores glory to you, then all the nations of the world will know that this is of God. You are God's covenant people. And the prophet then goes on to establish two pictures, and we'll come back to these, God willing, next week. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory. Relating to verse 1, her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. Go down to verse 5. Look at the last part of verse 5. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you. So the two pictures that the prophet now presents is one, the burning sun, and two, the blushing bride. And that theme is continued. What happens to a bride? Well, cultures can change wherever you go, but normally Normally, when a bride gets married, she will take on a new name. Normally that happens. We're moving in a modern age now, so that's changing a little bit. And if you have two professionals who marry each other, sometimes they keep their separate names so that they can establish their own. But normally, and you'll find it in Bible times, when a bride took on a new husband, she also took on a new name. So, note what happens in verse 2. You shall be called a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. And then he takes us through the new names in verse 4. You shall no longer be termed forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah." Well, the name Hephzibah literally means, my delight is in her. So when a groom and a bride stand at the altar, What is a groom declaring? My delight is in her. That's the new name that God is now giving to Israel. And the name Beulah, Paul, the name Beulah simply means married. So, look up at verse 4. You shall no longer be termed forsaken. So, what is she now? Married to the Lord. And we can expand all of those themes and thoughts when we get the picture of the Bride of Christ. What it means to be brought into not only his fold, but into his arms, into his heart. And as Paul very fluently puts it, and supported by Peter, and Peter probably puts it succinctly. Paul takes half a chapter in Ephesians to describe it all to us. Peter puts it very succinctly when he simply refers to us as, once we were not a people But now, we are the people of God. And that is the theme that is now carried through. And we'll come back and look at this more closely, God willing, next Wednesday night. And we link it in with Revelation. We're twice in Revelation. We're told that we are going to have a new name. And just look at verse 12 of Isaiah 62. "...and they shall call them the holy people." That's a contrast to what the prophet is telling us they are. If you go back to chapter 1, there you'll read of how dire their position is. "...full of wounds and bruises, putrefying souls which cannot be bound up, neither nullified with ointment. The complaint is that even the donkey knows his master, but Israel have no knowledge of God. But now they shall call them the holy people. What does that mean? The people of God. That's a privileged position that Israel will now have. Why are they to be called the holy people because they are the redeemed of the Lord. How have they become the redeemed of the Lord? Verse 12, you shall be called sought out. God sought them out. And that's what the prophet brings up again in chapter 65 and verse 1. God came, sought them out, and now he sets them apart and restores all of the promises of the covenant to them. And we'll take a little look more closely at that, God willing, next study. Father, we thank you for the words of exhortation and encouragement reminding us not to lean upon our own understanding. but in all our ways, if we acknowledge the Lord, he will direct our paths. We pray that you will guide us through the maze of life so that we will not deviate from the narrow road, no matter how much it may appear to entice for us to go and join the crowd. on the broad road, for we know that it is only the narrow way that leads to life eternal, and few there are who travel on it. Give us the courage, the strength to be faithful, to continue to walk in the light of your word, and to be as it were that bright shining light that shines out into the darkness so that those who know not Christ will be attracted to the light. Let our light so shine before all men that they will glorify our Father who is in heaven. So hear our prayer, continue with us, accept our thanks, and may the name of Jesus be honored in our lives through Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.