WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Well, we've had a long break, but if you remember, we are still in a series on Isaiah's 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.660 servant songs. 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:14.599 We've been looking at the servant songs in the book of the servant, which is in Isaiah 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:17.000 chapter 40 to 55. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.039 And in that section, there are five servant songs. 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:21.400 And we've already looked at all five of those. 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:28.480 We spent six weeks on those five servant songs from Isaiah 42 up to Isaiah 53, which is the 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:33.039 climax of the servant songs, the suffering servant. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:36.120 And these, remember, are songs. 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:37.120 They're songs. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:42.880 They're beautiful, carefully constructed and crafted Hebrew poetry. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:48.760 And we looked at all five sermons at the fact that the New Testament repeatedly quotes 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.359 the servant songs and testifies that the servant that's being spoken of in the servant songs 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:56.920 is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:01.480 And so what we've said is that you can come back to the servant songs in Isaiah and find 00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:06.599 an Old Testament Christology of sorts, the Old Testament teaching you things about Jesus 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.320 that even the Gospels don't talk about. 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:10.560 And that's what we've been doing. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:18.120 Now we turn to Isaiah 54 and 55 and 60, the next three weeks just around out January. 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:24.240 And Isaiah 54 and 55, particularly, they're not songs that are about the servant. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:29.199 They're not technically servant songs, but the logic in the book of the servant, which 00:01:29.199 --> 00:01:35.399 they're a part of, is that because of what the servant will do that we've already seen, 00:01:35.399 --> 00:01:44.679 particularly Isaiah 53, the suffering servant, then Isaiah 54 verse 1, seeing O'Baron 1 00:01:44.679 --> 00:01:50.319 or Isaiah 55, because of what the servant has done, come to a free feast, you who have 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:55.159 no money, you who want to buy without cost, come to a free feast. 00:01:55.159 --> 00:02:00.479 And so the back part of the book of the servant in Isaiah is the application. 00:02:00.479 --> 00:02:08.359 It's the application of what it means that the servant has accomplished, what he has 00:02:08.359 --> 00:02:12.000 done in being crushed, as we saw in Isaiah 53. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.560 It's what will come from it. 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:16.359 So let's just dive right into it. 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:22.880 Isaiah 54 is about two women, and it's divided into three sections. 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:27.760 And if you just look down, if you have a copy of the text, you'll see that there's a double 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:31.040 space between verse 3 and verse 4. 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:35.840 There's also, would be one if it didn't start a new page between verse 8 and verse 9. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:36.840 Those are the three sections. 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.800 It's just telling you that in Hebrew, it's in three different sections, and it's about 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:43.160 two different women. 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:44.520 So here's what we're going to learn. 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:50.680 We're going to learn first that there is an undeserved marriage, that there is an unending 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:56.000 promise, and lastly that there is a supernatural family. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.280 So first, an undeserved marriage, which starts at verse 4, talking about the second woman 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:03.280 in the passage. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.879 We're going to look at the second woman first. 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:13.240 In this section, our relationship with God is being cast in the metaphor of romance, 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.840 of a romantic pursuit. 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:24.480 And the scene is that in verses 4 to 6, God is speaking to a woman, and her current state, 00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:29.439 he tells us, she is ashamed. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.520 There was shame in her youth. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.320 She has the reproach of widowhood, more precisely the reproach of being husbandless because 00:03:38.320 --> 00:03:41.520 of a divorce. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:42.719 She's a deserted wife. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:48.159 She's a wife of youth that has been cast off. 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.439 And so you can picture the scene here. 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:55.759 You've got a woman that married young. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:57.759 That's the wind, I think. 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:00.079 You've got a woman that married young. 00:04:00.079 --> 00:04:04.520 She lost her husband young. 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:12.199 Years of deep shame in a culture where being single is especially hard, but that's not 00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:18.719 even the reason why she's ashamed here, as it's talking about her being ashamed. 00:04:18.719 --> 00:04:20.000 It's something else. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:28.599 The word that's being used here in verses 4 and 5 for shame is a word that means hopelessness 00:04:28.599 --> 00:04:35.519 because of holding on to sin from the past, from your earlier life. 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:41.279 And the reason she is ashamed, this woman here, this deserted woman, is because of the 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:45.199 bigger picture that you have to read from other parts of Isaiah and even other parts 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:46.439 of the book of the servant. 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:54.399 And in Isaiah 50 verse 1, Israel, who this woman stands for symbolically, is issued a 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:58.199 certificate of divorce from God. 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:02.399 So God comes to Israel in Isaiah 50 and says, I am issuing you a certificate of divorce. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:06.759 In other words, I married you, but now I'm divorcing you. 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:12.039 And that's what this section is referring to, Israel, the woman, the husbandless woman 00:05:12.039 --> 00:05:18.079 who is full of her approach and shame because she has no husband, because God has divorced 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:19.079 her. 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:20.079 Why? 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:24.759 Well, he says in Isaiah 51, because of her iniquities is the quote. 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:31.680 In other words, God married the woman he loved, the people he loved. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:36.800 He loved, ferocious love for her. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:40.759 And she chose idols. 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:42.400 She chose other gods. 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:47.319 She chose to worship creatures rather than the Creator. 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:49.920 That's what we're talking about here with this second woman. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:55.040 The prophetic language, especially in other books like Hosea, does not shy away from filling 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:59.240 out this metaphor by using the language of prostitution. 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:01.560 She was an adulterer, Hosea says. 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.120 Israel was an adulterer. 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:10.920 Just listen to how Hosea, who's a contemporary of Isaiah at the same time, describes it. 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:17.680 Someday God says, when I bring you back, you will call me my husband and no longer will 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.199 you call me my bail. 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:24.199 Now bail is a generic term for God. 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:25.720 It's just a generic term for the gods. 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:29.160 And so what Hosea is saying there, what God is saying there is when I call you back, you're 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:31.319 no longer just going to call me bail. 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:33.680 You're going to call me husband. 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:42.560 Meaning that Israel, the woman here at this time, was calling God one of the gods, generic, 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:45.040 one of the pantheon, one of the many gods. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:49.719 They were referring to God as a, Yahweh, their redeemer as a bail, just like any of the other 00:06:49.719 --> 00:06:51.920 nations gods. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:58.839 Meaning that they were willing to go out with many other men, metaphorically speaking. 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:06.560 So God in verse six, verse eight, verse seven refers to it, he did what is justified. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:10.279 It says, for a season I cast her off. 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:13.839 You see that verse eight, he hid his face for seven. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:16.319 He deserted her. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:20.879 And it's not so much that God abandoned the wife of his youth. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:29.719 It's that she abandoned him and he gave her up to the men, the idols that she desired. 00:07:29.719 --> 00:07:32.319 In other words, he withdrew from her. 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:34.240 He pulled back from her. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:39.680 And in the immediate context, what that means is that Israel is a tiny little nation, not 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:43.439 very military, she doesn't have a powerful military at the time. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:49.519 And when God withdrew from her, his protection, his love for her, all the bigger nations came 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:52.839 down upon her and she was an easy captor. 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:56.359 And what this is prophesying about in the book of the servant in the immediate context 00:07:56.359 --> 00:08:01.759 is that she's been taken into Babylon, she's been crushed, Jerusalem has been destroyed. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:09.959 And she is in the shame, shame, a shame to widow, a husbandless woman, metaphorically. 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:12.439 She's an abused woman. 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:18.240 God gave her over to exactly what she wanted and what happened is results in a shame, disgrace 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:25.199 for approach and homelessness is what the passage is talking about. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:32.000 But verse five, but not anymore. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.560 Your maker is your husband. 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:38.320 The climax phrase of the text. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:46.680 Your maker is your husband, he says, despite the adultery, despite the prostitution as Hosea 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:53.799 puts it, because of great compassion, God says here is the language, because of overwhelming 00:08:53.799 --> 00:09:00.599 ferocious love, love that's being cast here in the language of romantic pursuit. 00:09:00.599 --> 00:09:07.839 No matter what she's done, no matter what you've done, you see, no matter what you've 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:17.240 done, he will take her back, which is the simple definition of redemption. 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:23.480 Now don't confuse the fact that he's using the metaphor of a woman here to forget that 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:30.200 he's also talking to adulterous men, to men who are idolaters, to an Israel who's cast 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:37.080 in the language of a woman here that would have been led by men, men and women, both 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:41.960 adulterous, chasing after idols, that's who he's talking to. 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:48.400 Now there are a bunch of really grand juxtapositions here in this section. 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:53.160 Just notice from verse five when he says, your maker is your husband, from there, just 00:09:53.160 --> 00:10:00.759 listen, this is what he says about himself, that I am maker, creator, the Almighty, the 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:05.480 Holy One, the Lord of all the earth, he says. 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:09.200 In other words, he's drawing us up into the language of transcendence, of power, of majesty, 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:13.600 of might, of all mightiness in all of these sentences. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:14.840 He's saying I'm the Lord of all the earth. 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:19.279 In other words, you've gone after the gods of some of the places on earth because gods 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:22.920 were designated in a specific realm in the ancient Near East. 00:10:22.920 --> 00:10:24.920 But I'm the Lord of all the earth. 00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:28.720 He uses the language of wrath and anger and I've deserted you. 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:29.879 I've departed from you. 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:33.399 I'm angry with you. 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:38.919 And then I am your husband in the very same sentence. 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:41.519 I am your redeemer. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:45.720 The Lord of all the earth has called you back. 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:50.720 And the verb there for called you back is, it's a romantic verb. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:56.319 You can't really tell that in English, but it's specifically a verb for wooing, like 00:10:56.319 --> 00:11:00.079 chasing after a woman you love or something like that. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.200 The Lord of all the earth has called you back. 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:12.000 You see, it's these grand juxtapositions set side by side. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.879 The climax, he calls himself the redeemer. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:20.639 And literally in the Old Testament in the ancient Near East, redeemers were well known. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.879 I mean, it's a common cultural concept and it simply means one who buys back. 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:31.200 And you'll remember the notion of the kinsmen redeemer who can buy back their relative. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:37.960 He's saying, I will take you back from the men that you have given yourself over to. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:44.439 Now the great illustration of this, of course, in the Old Testament is again from a contemporary 00:11:44.439 --> 00:11:47.159 of Isaiah is Hosea. 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:49.439 You'll remember the story of many of you of Hosea. 00:11:49.439 --> 00:11:53.200 He's prophesying around the same time. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:58.120 And he did what a bunch of the prophets are called to in the Old Testament, Ezekiel and 00:11:58.120 --> 00:11:59.200 Hosea especially. 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:05.360 And that's, Hosea uses the phrase that I was called to live out God's heart. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:12.840 In other words, these prophets are actually called in their own personal life to be illustrations 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.400 of God's own heart. 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:20.120 And so what is, how does Hosea live out God's heart? 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:25.159 God says, go and marry a prostitute named Gomer. 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:28.360 And so he did and she cheated on him, right? 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:31.039 And she left him. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:38.440 And in Hosea chapter three, God says, go again and love her anyway. 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:49.600 And so Hosea goes to a marketplace where they sell sex slaves, concubines, and he buys his 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:56.480 wife back from the sex slave market. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.320 He takes her home. 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:05.879 Just as an aside here, this is not the main point, but as the church, we have to be aware 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:13.639 and praying and asking ourselves what can we do to combat the issue of women and young 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:19.480 girls captured in the sex slave market, which is enormous in our world. 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:22.840 We're here than any of us can imagine, I think. 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:24.920 Back to the main point. 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:27.159 She was in this market, Gomer, his wife. 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:28.159 And this is what he says. 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:35.080 So I went and I bought her back for 15 shekels of silver and about a Homer and a Lefk of 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.399 barley. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:44.759 Your salvation, this is not just about Israel. 00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:46.039 We've been looking at the book of the servant. 00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:51.360 We know that the New Testament tells us this is about us. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:59.959 Your salvation is being cast in the language of God's romantic pursuit for you. 00:13:59.959 --> 00:14:05.879 The God who is your father by nature, the Lord of all the art, the maker, the creator, the 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:10.959 God to whom all of us said no, but he said yes. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:16.800 It's precisely at the moment that we said no that he comes and says, yes, I will buy 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:18.080 you back. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:19.720 I will redeem you. 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:23.759 I will go to the marketplace for you. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:25.200 God marries us cheaters. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:33.280 You see, this is simply about your maker is your redeemer. 00:14:33.280 --> 00:14:35.759 And this prophecy is about us. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:42.240 Now secondly, how can he do this? 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:46.879 How can you reconcile the juxtapositions that we just looked at? 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:51.039 That God is the Lord of all the art, the creator, the maker of all that there is. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:55.759 And before him, we deserve the wrath that he talks about here, the anger, the desertion 00:14:55.759 --> 00:15:00.519 with the fact that he comes to her and says to us and says, but I will redeem you. 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:01.519 I don't care. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.840 My love is so ferocious. 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:06.920 And how can he do that? 00:15:06.920 --> 00:15:10.840 Where's the justice in reconciling those two ideas? 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:15.200 And the answer is in verses nine and 10 where we read about, we learn about an unending 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:19.080 promise, the third section here, this passage. 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:23.320 Now it's peculiar this section. 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:27.519 This is like the days of Noah to me as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:29.120 over the earth. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:31.400 So he jumps into talking about Noah. 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:36.919 And the subject of this idea is actually the waters of Noah. 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:42.439 And so what he's simply saying is back in the days of Noah, I flooded the earth with 00:15:42.439 --> 00:15:47.120 water and the water was judgment over the earth. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:51.639 And when the judgment, when the waters recited, I said, no more. 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:54.959 I will make a covenant with this land. 00:15:54.959 --> 00:15:55.960 No more will I do this. 00:15:55.960 --> 00:16:03.000 The exact same way I'm here to make an unending promise with all of you that I left you, I 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.800 withdrew from you, but no more, never again. 00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:06.800 Not from my people. 00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:08.120 I won't do it. 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:09.620 And why? 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:10.720 How is he willing to say that? 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:11.720 How can he say it? 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:13.560 And the answer he gives is in verse 10. 00:16:13.560 --> 00:16:20.960 And it's in the language, a little phrase, my covenant of peace shall not be removed. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.280 My covenant of peace is the answer. 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:32.919 Now, covenant of peace, this idea of a covenant of peace, it only appears four times in the 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:34.519 whole Bible. 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:36.559 All of them are in the Old Testament. 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:38.600 And what is it? 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:44.559 The English word that's translated here, peace, it doesn't really capture the whole of the 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:47.039 idea. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.159 It's the Hebrew word that all of us probably know. 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:51.319 It's the word shalom. 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:57.800 And in the modern world, when we think of peace, we think of the ending of hostility, 00:16:57.800 --> 00:17:00.280 the ceasing of war or something like that. 00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:03.200 But what's being talked about here is something much bigger than that. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.440 Shalom is a concept that we just don't have a word in English for. 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:10.759 But if you go and read biblical scholars on this idea that pops up all throughout the 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:17.600 Old Testament and in the New Shalom, they'll say something, a word more like flourishing 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:22.639 or well-being or the good life or something like that. 00:17:22.639 --> 00:17:27.439 But even that doesn't capture it because in the modern world, for us, for the contemporary 00:17:27.439 --> 00:17:33.439 society, the good life is usually thought of as something like in the language of entertainment 00:17:33.439 --> 00:17:37.839 and amusement and working Monday to Friday so you can get to the weekends and binge 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:39.639 watch Netflix or something like that. 00:17:39.639 --> 00:17:44.039 That's the modern language of the good life. 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:45.719 But it doesn't mean that, of course. 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:47.559 It's something much bigger and much grander. 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:53.279 This word shalom, this covenant of peace, what is it? 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:59.200 One of the main places that it's also mentioned in the Bible is in Ezekiel chapter 34. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:04.600 So I don't usually do this, but if you do have a Bible, turn over to Ezekiel 34 because 00:18:04.600 --> 00:18:12.200 it's worth seeing because there's a direct description of shalom here in Ezekiel 34 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:18.759 where he mentions the covenant of peace down in verse 25 to 31. 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:20.720 And just if you didn't turn there, that's fine. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:27.920 Just listen to what type of a place is being talked about when this covenant of peace shalom 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.960 takes hold. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:35.080 I will make with them a covenant of peace, there it is, and I will banish wild beasts 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:42.319 from the land so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:46.839 And I will make them in the places all around my hill a blessing. 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.399 And I will send down the showers in their season. 00:18:49.399 --> 00:18:55.079 They shall be showers of blessing and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:57.639 and the earth shall yield its increase. 00:18:57.639 --> 00:19:01.639 And they shall be secure in their land and they shall know that I am the Lord when I 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:07.840 break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 00:19:07.840 --> 00:19:11.800 They shall no more be afraid of the nations nor shall the beast of the land devour them. 00:19:11.800 --> 00:19:16.880 They shall dwell securely and none shall make them afraid and I will provide for them renown 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:22.320 plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land and no longer 00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:24.840 suffer the reproach of the nations. 00:19:24.840 --> 00:19:29.000 They shall know that I am the Lord their God with them and that they, the house of Israel, 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.839 are my people, declares the Lord. 00:19:32.839 --> 00:19:35.960 What's the picture of Shalom? 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:37.880 He will banish wild beasts. 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:41.440 He will give you safety in the woods. 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:45.440 He will put a mountain of blessing in the middle of your city. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:50.480 He will bring showers that yield crops, fruit, plenty to eat. 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:52.519 He will provide security, he says. 00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:54.400 He will end your slavery. 00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:00.040 He will break the bars of your yoke, all you who are weary and heavy laden. 00:20:00.040 --> 00:20:01.440 I will give you rest. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:04.800 Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is light. 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:07.120 It is not burdensome. 00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:08.759 No more exile, he says. 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:11.040 No more will you be a prey to the nations. 00:20:11.040 --> 00:20:12.560 No more persecution. 00:20:12.560 --> 00:20:14.200 None shall make you afraid. 00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:15.840 None shall be hungry. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:19.680 None shall suffer in the climax. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.480 I will be with you like a shepherd with their sheep. 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:25.920 What is he describing? 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:31.400 Much more than ceasing of wars or something like we might think of peace today. 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:33.039 It's much bigger. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:40.960 He's describing the perfect city, the perfect society, the perfect garden, if you will. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:46.039 And at this, he's describing the union of heaven and earth, Ephesians 1, 9 to 10. 00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:51.480 He's describing exactly what salvation came to do and that's to bring the union of heaven 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:52.480 and earth. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:54.599 He's describing the city of God. 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.559 The covenant of peace is a covenant of shalom. 00:20:57.559 --> 00:20:58.759 It's about much more. 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:00.519 It's about the city of God. 00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:05.759 It's the restoration of nature, the destruction of our slavery to sin and the presence of 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:09.200 God fully, finally and forever. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:15.039 Nicholas Wolterstorf is a scholar that's worked a lot on thinking about shalom throughout 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:17.240 the Bible and this idea of the covenant of peace. 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:19.200 And this is how he describes it. 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:20.799 It's big and broad. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:24.200 It is cosmic redemptive promise. 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.319 It's being friends with God. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:29.019 It's being in harmony with other people. 00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:31.559 It's being in harmony with nature. 00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:37.519 It's the removal of the curse from nature and it's being at peace in our own selves. 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.240 It's the absence of any mental illness. 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:45.799 It's where you truly desire the good, where your head and your heart no longer clash with 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:51.599 each other, that you do exactly what you want and it's never sinful. 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:55.119 It's the presence, he says, of justice, truth and beauty. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:59.799 It's the absence of sin, chaos and death. 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:05.639 And one of my favorite agrarian theologians back in the States, Wendell Berry, he puts 00:22:05.639 --> 00:22:14.680 it like this, I take very literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world, 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:17.120 the whole world. 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:22.039 I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it endures by love and that 00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:26.240 because it is redeemable it will be redeemed only in love. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:32.920 I believe that divine love, incarnate love summons the world always towards wholeness 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:37.640 which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God. 00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:42.920 Now look, this is the logic of the whole book of the servant encapsulated right here in 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:49.480 these last two verses of this section and here it is, verse 9 and 10. 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:55.160 The world in Noah's day came under the waters of chaos. 00:22:55.160 --> 00:23:03.279 It came under the waters of judgment and just as the judgment of those deathly waters when 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:10.560 they receded led to a covenant of peace with the land, a covenant of life. 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:18.359 So the work of the servant will lead to an unending covenant of peace with the whole 00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:22.319 world, the promise of Shalom. 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:31.559 It's the application of Isaiah 53, the servant crushed, maimed, broken in Isaiah 54, meaning 00:23:31.559 --> 00:23:33.839 you get Shalom. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:34.839 What's this about? 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:38.720 This is about the cross. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:45.759 The cross is the reconciliation of justice and love where a creator can be the husband 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:50.319 of the adulterer. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:55.519 This is where the servant, the cross, it's where the servant takes wrath so you can be 00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:58.759 the bride of God. 00:23:58.759 --> 00:24:05.039 It's where he got destroyed so you could have the hope of Shalom. 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:10.680 It's where Christ is ultimately abandoned so that you would never have to be. 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:15.480 You would never have to be the widow. 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:16.639 We're doing this new thing now. 00:24:16.639 --> 00:24:18.159 I hope you like it. 00:24:18.159 --> 00:24:22.279 I like it in our bulletins where we print the evening service and we give a reflection 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:25.680 at the beginning just to help put your mind at it. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:31.039 Tozer, AW Tozer here, he puts it this way at the end of that quote in the bulletin, Jesus 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:35.440 Christ our Lord surrendered in order that he might win. 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:41.399 He destroyed his enemies by dying for them and he conquered death by allowing death to 00:24:41.399 --> 00:24:46.319 conquer him so that you could have Shalom. 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:48.399 Yes so you could have the forgiveness of sins. 00:24:48.399 --> 00:24:49.399 Absolutely. 00:24:49.399 --> 00:24:53.920 And much more than that, salvation, it's much bigger. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:56.399 It's the restoration of everything. 00:24:56.399 --> 00:24:59.200 It's the end of the curse, the covenant of peace. 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:00.200 That's what it's about. 00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:02.920 Now, thirdly and finally, we'll be just very brief here. 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:05.319 We're almost out of time. 00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:11.200 The sermon takes an unexpected turn here as we go back to the first woman there at the 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:13.440 beginning of the passage. 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:19.720 The desolate woman teaches us about a supernatural family. 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:26.440 It says in the first couple verses, this is a different woman, a different metaphor. 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:28.840 She's desolate or in other words, she's barren. 00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:30.959 She can't have any children. 00:25:30.959 --> 00:25:33.399 Who is she? 00:25:33.399 --> 00:25:35.959 And the answer is metaphorically, symbolically. 00:25:35.959 --> 00:25:40.399 She's not just the whole nation of Israel, but she's more specifically the symbol here 00:25:40.399 --> 00:25:44.000 is that she stands for Jerusalem, the city. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.000 Now how do we know that? 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:51.000 Well, we read in our New Testament reading just a little bit ago about this woman, if 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:52.000 you remember. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:59.720 In Galatians chapter four, Paul quotes from Isaiah 54-1 and he says in that passage, 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:03.000 seeing barren woman, your children will be more than the one who has a husband. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.880 He quotes Isaiah 54, but right before that, he identifies the barren woman. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:10.920 And who does he say she is? 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:18.559 He says, the Jerusalem above is your mother. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:23.279 And so Paul identifies this woman right here and says this is Jerusalem. 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:24.599 Jerusalem is the barren woman. 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:25.599 Now why? 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:26.599 What does that mean? 00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:30.399 Well, in the immediate context, just think about it, in the immediate context, Jerusalem 00:26:30.399 --> 00:26:31.480 has been destroyed. 00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:33.679 That's what the prophecy is about. 00:26:33.679 --> 00:26:40.440 And all of her children are in Babylon and so she's become barren. 00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:41.440 She has no children. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:47.879 And so the prophecy is saying, oh, Jerusalem, you barren woman, all your children are gone. 00:26:47.880 --> 00:26:48.880 You're desolate. 00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:49.880 You've been destroyed. 00:26:49.880 --> 00:26:51.280 You've been laid to waste. 00:26:51.280 --> 00:26:55.600 But you will have more children than the married woman, Babylon. 00:26:55.600 --> 00:26:57.760 You will have more children than you can possibly imagine. 00:26:57.760 --> 00:27:01.640 And then verse two, expand your tents, pick up your tent pegs, stretch them to the corners 00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:02.640 of the earth. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:06.600 You're going to have to be a much bigger city than you currently are now to get what 00:27:06.600 --> 00:27:09.160 I'm about to give to you. 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:14.280 And so what he's saying here is that, yes, I am your husband. 00:27:14.280 --> 00:27:15.880 And Paul tells us he's talking to the church. 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.200 I'm your husband. 00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:24.000 And Jerusalem, Jerusalem in this metaphor, is your mother. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:25.200 Now that's the immediate context. 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.520 But when we look at it across the whole Bible, Paul says this. 00:27:29.520 --> 00:27:34.920 He's speaking about not the city of Jerusalem as it presently stands in Israel at the moment. 00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:40.040 He's talking about, he says, the Jerusalem that is above. 00:27:40.040 --> 00:27:42.840 Not the earthly city, but the heavenly city of Jerusalem. 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:46.519 The city of God is what Hebrews 12 puts it. 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:51.159 The city of God, in other words, the city of God, he's saying, is where I will have 00:27:51.159 --> 00:27:56.720 tons of children, supernatural children that won't be born by blood, Jew, Gentile, all 00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.359 sorts in the city above. 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:03.199 It's not about the city of Jerusalem, the city in the Middle East. 00:28:03.199 --> 00:28:04.199 It's much bigger than that. 00:28:04.199 --> 00:28:05.199 She's got to expand her tents. 00:28:05.199 --> 00:28:09.240 She'll never be able to hold all the children that are going to be members of the city that 00:28:09.240 --> 00:28:13.039 is above. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:19.759 Even now, even now, the Jerusalem that is above, our mother, Paul calls her, has thousands 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:26.839 and millions of children from every single generation that there's been since of all 00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:27.839 of history. 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:35.120 Now, I don't want to say much about this because we're out of time, but I just want to say, 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:43.639 especially as we think about verse 2 here, expand your tents, O Jerusalem, that we as 00:28:43.639 --> 00:28:50.679 members here in the Free Church of Scotland and as a nation who has an immense history 00:28:50.679 --> 00:28:56.000 of Christianity at the base of our society, that we have to be more and more conscious 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:01.359 all the time and fight to be conscious of the global church. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:06.519 I want to draw us into being more conscious of the global church. 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:12.959 Nearly two-thirds of Christians that will go to church today are not in America or the 00:29:12.959 --> 00:29:17.959 UK or Europe, but are in the majority world, the global south. 00:29:17.959 --> 00:29:21.079 Two-thirds of all the Christians. 00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:26.399 Philip Jenkins in The Next Christendom, a very important book in the last decade, he 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:33.160 writes this, which I still shocks me in a way. 00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:42.280 The average Christian today is not a young white male living in Mississippi or Scotland, 00:29:42.280 --> 00:29:50.519 but is a female, is black, and lives in a Brazilian slum or an African village. 00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:54.720 When you look across the Christian population throughout the world and find medians and 00:29:54.720 --> 00:30:01.400 means and averages, we are not in the median mean or average any longer, middle of that 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:07.440 average any longer churches in places like the UK or even in America. 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:12.200 If current trajectories remain the same, the country and the world with the largest Christian 00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:21.400 population by the time my son will be a young adult and maybe even a teenager will be China. 00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:27.800 One Chinese pastor recently in the telegraph put it this way, Mao thought he could eliminate 00:30:27.800 --> 00:30:29.720 religion. 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:32.000 He thought he had accomplished this. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:33.560 It's ironic. 00:30:33.560 --> 00:30:34.720 He didn't. 00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.720 He actually failed completely. 00:30:37.720 --> 00:30:41.440 China would have the largest population of Christians for any country in the world in 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:43.960 the next decade. 00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:46.960 We've got to know about what God is doing in the world. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:55.200 We can see the prophecy of Isaiah 54-2 already being fulfilled as the church moves across 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:57.799 the global south and the majority world. 00:30:57.799 --> 00:31:05.840 100 years ago in 1910 at the World Council of Churches, Western countries had four times 00:31:05.840 --> 00:31:09.200 the amount of Christians that the majority world has. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:11.360 Four times 100 years ago. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:19.479 And in 2010, the global south had two times more than the west of Christians. 00:31:19.479 --> 00:31:25.240 And that's happened in one century. 00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:32.199 Jerusalem above, you better get bigger tent pegs and expand your tent because the church 00:31:32.199 --> 00:31:41.119 is big and broad and it will always, always be spreading. 00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:43.359 Give me two minutes and we'll be done. 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:49.919 I just want to give you four things, 30 seconds each, four times that makes two minutes, I 00:31:49.919 --> 00:31:54.519 think, of how you can respond tonight. 00:31:54.519 --> 00:31:59.719 First is verse six, answer the call. 00:31:59.719 --> 00:32:05.919 God calls his wife out of the slave market. 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:13.600 And your husband is calling and the simple application that he's referring to, it means 00:32:13.600 --> 00:32:18.240 don't commit adultery, don't cheat on him. 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:24.160 And what that means metaphorically is that you have to be willing to identify your idols. 00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:29.920 You have to be willing to know what they are and to take your precious ring and throw it 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:34.920 into the volcanic magma of Mount Doom. 00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:36.279 You have to be willing to cast away. 00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:39.200 You have to answer the call. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.240 He is your husband. 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:44.240 What are your idols? 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:46.440 What do you love most? 00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:53.960 Secondly, verse four and five, forget your shame. 00:32:53.960 --> 00:32:56.720 Forget your shame. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:33:03.360 Shame here is a hopelessness because of what you have done in the past. 00:33:03.359 --> 00:33:10.959 And you are not beyond the pale of forgiveness, no matter what you've done. 00:33:10.959 --> 00:33:16.839 And for Christians especially, you too have to let your guilt be forgiven. 00:33:16.839 --> 00:33:20.159 You have to let your guilt go. 00:33:20.159 --> 00:33:21.919 Your maker is your husband. 00:33:21.919 --> 00:33:28.279 And if your husband, God himself, is willing to say yes to you because of what Jesus Christ 00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:35.599 did on the cross, how can you continue to hold on to guilt that God himself has forgotten? 00:33:35.599 --> 00:33:41.440 It is to put yourself above God as judge, like you needed something more than the cross 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:44.960 for you to truly forgive yourself. 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:47.559 Forget your shame. 00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:52.559 Thirdly, verse four, sing. 00:33:52.559 --> 00:34:02.759 Sing, rejoice, because you deserve death, but the servant got death so that you could have 00:34:02.759 --> 00:34:05.039 peace. 00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:08.840 Rejoice with Jerusalem your mother. 00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:16.679 And lastly, and finally, and we'll pray, love the Jerusalem that is above. 00:34:16.679 --> 00:34:19.759 Now, this one's more enigmatic. 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:22.720 Love the Jerusalem that is above. 00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:29.680 What Paul's talking about there is the invisible church, the whole body of saints, Christ's 00:34:29.680 --> 00:34:36.000 body being prepared in the Jerusalem, the city of God that is above. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.000 Love the church. 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:39.800 That's what he's saying. 00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:45.560 The Jerusalem that is above, he calls her your mother because it's in the church that 00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:53.599 you are nourished, raised, brought up, that you grow, and you have to love her even when 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:58.759 you don't want to. 00:34:58.759 --> 00:35:01.599 Love the global church. 00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:02.840 Get to know her. 00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:06.279 We probably don't know her that well here. 00:35:06.279 --> 00:35:09.039 Get to know the global church and love her and pray for her. 00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:10.480 All right, let's pray. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:17.760 Lord, we ask that you would show us the beauty of the fact that we have been redeemed from 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:22.320 our idolatrous adultery. 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:26.840 Thank you for Jesus Christ, the servant for us. 00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:30.000 We ask that you would bring some of us back, maybe, Lord, that need to be brought back. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:37.280 We ask that you would change our hearts, that you would give us love for the church, joy, 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:39.480 if we don't have it. 00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:42.360 We just ask for these things, a spirit of Christ come. 00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:44.000 We ask for that in Jesus' name. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:36:11.000 Amen.